Starting point Copenhagen

At least since the UN climate summit in Copenhagen, a new wave of social movements has emerged for the struggle for an effective climate protection. The alliance Klimawelle (climate wave) is also part of this grouping.
Whilst the summit of Copenhagen failed disastrously, various activists gathered outside of the negotiations in order to fight for a very different, effective and socially just climate agreement.

The climate justice movement – a bottom-up system-critical movement

The so-called climate justice movement emerged in Copenhagen around two networks: Climate Justice Now and Climate Justice Action.
They both share a rejection of the Copenhagen Accord, drawn up at Copenhagen, as it reinforces the non-reliable nature of current climate protection.
Furthermore, both movements share the analysis that only breaking with existing global capitalist production structures will lead to really effective climate protection. Thus: System Change, not climate change!

Think global, act local

Why is it that existing global capitalist structures do not allow for an effective and just climate protection? This is because power structures in various countries systematically hinder this. It is due to the power of energy corporations, the power of the automobile industry and the lobby work of their associations.
And of course, it is also caused by national interests which hinder effective climate protection policies. For this reason the climate justice movement supports the following approach: Linking up globally and acting locally, regionally and nationally to combat these power-structures!

We will protect ourselves only if politicians, so far too scared to break with backward-looking interest groups, abandon the 2°C target.

Klimawelle Positions –

individual behaviour and system criticism as prerequisite for change

Klimawelle holds the view that individual strategies for action are necessary and valid.

Therefore, it is crucial to promote sustainable consumption in our society. This means: an attitude towards daily consumption that does not follow the logic of maximized consumption, but instead seeks to consciously consume only that which is necessary.

Part of this awareness is to focus ones diet on regional, biological and meat-reduced food; to cycle and to use public transport systems for mobility; to reduce ones energy consumption.

Concerning the latter it is also possible to send a signal towards energy corporations by switching energy provider – from nuclear and coal power to renewable sources.

Nevertheless, possibilities for individual action are limited by systemic structural components.
The limitations which bound individual freedom of action are, for example, determined by common policies within governmental bodies and unions (e.g. nuclear politics of EU body EURATOM), the concentration of power of economic structures in (western) democracies (e.g. energy corporations in Germany) and other national-political power structures.

The aim of this extraparliamentary movement is thus to criticize and pinpoint at the afore-mentioned structures. By doing this, we aim at instigating a sustainable discourse in society.

The positions that are held by Klimawelle in order to reach these goals, are:

A) To move away from fossil fuels! Towards a democratic & decentralized supply of energy! 100 percent renewable energies are necessary and possible!

B) An all-encompassing criticism of growth, which involves turning away from the imperative of growth at any cost. This is especially important for sectors impacting the climate negatively.

C) Turning away from the fossil-fuel based production structure. Towards a new form of economics, that is substantially ecologically and solidarity based!

D) For comprehensive climate justice. Industrialised countries especially have to assume their responsibility for 200 years of climate damaging economic growth: by rapidly changing their own production structure, by supporting the development and conversion of transition economies, thus settling their ecological debt.

E) Away from market-based solutions that only feign a global CO₂ emissions reduction and consolidate existing power structures (e.g. emissions-certificate trading). Towards solutions that emerge out of socio-political and democratic debate.

Come and surf with us on the climate wave and stand up for world-wide climate justice!