Environmental activists disrupted flights at Frankfurt and Oslo airports on the second day of coordinated “Death by Oil” protests across Europe and North America.
Supporters of “The Last Generation,” a movement calling for an end to fossil fuel use by 2030, temporarily grounded flights at Frankfurt airport on Thursday morning after activists said they had cut through chain-link fences, entered on bicycles and skateboards and glued themselves to the runway.
In Oslo, protesters from Folke Mott Fossilmakta and Scientists Revolt Norway blocked check-in lanes with banners reading “Fast Track to be phased out”, causing long queues.
“I hate to be here today, but I can no longer stand by and watch our elected officials do so little and act so slowly,” said Ina Nagler, a climate researcher who attended the Oslo protest. “The science is clear: we must dramatically reduce our use of fossil fuels this decade.”
Protests to pressure governments to speed up the transition to a clean economy have hit airports at the start of the busy summer season. Activists disrupted travel plans at airports from Helsinki to Barcelona on Wednesday morning. Further protests at airports are expected in the United States and Canada on Thursday.
The protests drew swift criticism from authorities, with campaign group Oil Kills saying police had arrested 37 of the 91 activists involved, with 14 still in custody.
“These actions are stupid, criminal and dangerous,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faser said in a post on X. “Those who block the runway not only risk their own lives, they also put others at risk and cause harm to all travelers.”
Let’s Generation responded by calling the government’s climate policies “dangerous and criminal”, saying they were too weak to meet the targets.
European governments have cracked down on disruptive climate change protests with police and sentencing powers that some human rights experts have described as “frightening.”
Last week, Extinction Rebellion co-founder Roger Hallam was sentenced to five years in prison for plotting to block the M25 motorway that encircles London. German police are using laws aimed at fighting organized crime to wiretap phones, search homes, freeze bank accounts and put activists in preventive detention.
“Such acts must be punished more severely. We are proposing heavier prison sentences,” Faezer said.
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Activists are calling on governments of wealthy countries to work together to reach a legally binding treaty to stop extracting and burning oil, gas and coal by 2030 and to help poorer countries make the transition.
Leading scientists have long supported calls to phase out fossil fuels, but the pace of change activists are demanding is faster than the path outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency. The World Health Organization has warned of the enormous human cost of climate breakdown and endorsed a treaty to prevent the proliferation of fossil fuels.
Activists announced further protests would be held at the airport on Saturday.
“Airplanes are the fastest way to scorch the planet, so the first step is to cut pointless and unfair flying like private jets and short-haul flights,” said Ines Telles, from campaign group Stay Ground, which supports the protests. “The actions taken yesterday and today to disrupt airports should be a jolt to the system that is leading us to climate catastrophe.”
