German climate activist Luisa Neubauer, the Center for German and European Studies’ (CGES) Visiting Research Scholar for the year, recently came to Brandeis’ campus for several days of climate-centric conversations.
Neubauer is the leader of Germany’s Fridays for Future movement, described as “a youth-led and -organized movement that began in August 2018, after 15-year-old Greta Thunberg and other young activists sat in front of the Swedish parliament every schoolday for three weeks, to protest against the lack of action on the climate crisis.” She also recently won a landmark climate litigation victory, Neubauer v. Germany, that forced Germany to improve its climate change regulations and is now suing the German government again. During her trip away from her home in Germany, Neubauer came to Brandeis to have lunch with several climate-focused Brandeis community members, host a conversation about climate justice and speak at a day-long event about climate change activism strategy. During her time on campus, The Hoot sat down with Neubauer to speak about her work, Brandeis’ role in the fight against climate change and more.
When asked to describe her work for those who may not know much about climate activism, Neubauer said that she spends a lot of her time talking about climate “spaces where climate isn’t usually being discussed. Not only in conferences, but at kindergartens, universities, unions and wherever. The second thing I do is organize with people. So I organize meetings, rallies and interventions. I organize [with] schools to teach more about climate, [and] I organize in the political arena, challenging [political] parties on their work … The third thing I do is I try to create images that inspire people. So we try to bring climate together with music.” Neubauer’s work of creating images to inspire people to think differently about climate change was on full display at Brandeis, where she spoke about climate justice at a CGES event with the Lydian string quartet.
Neubauer also described what she views Fridays for Future’s role as in the fight against climate change, noting that “it’s one of the largest movements that works globally on questions of climate justice. We have chapters in more than 50 countries, with each chapter being quite independent, yet … united under a name. That [name] makes it easier for people to enter rooms, because we find if you associate with a large organization and yet keep a lot of independence, you can actually get quite far. However, we [saw] that after Fridays for Future started to work on the global stage in 2019, many more movements started. I think that makes it challenging sometimes, because there are now many movements in the space, but also it means that we have a diversity of places where you can go when you choose to do something [for climate justice].”
She also touched on what student-centric organizations like Brandeis can do to aid in the fight against climate change. Neubauer noted that “Oftentimes when you consider academic institutions, you would look at the CO2 impact. … You need to make sure that Brandeis has renewables and that the buildings [are] insulated and that people could have access to public transport that could bring them to university so that you have less students reliant on cars. You need people to get around [on] their bikes or maybe even provide bikes so that people can get around campus [more easily] and [more quickly], and get used to this whole bike idea and so on. You think about waste, recycling and all these things, yet one of the most impactful things as a university you can probably do is think about your assets: where’s your money invested? I hear there’s a big campaign getting Brandeis assets to become fossil-free. Universities in the U.S. [don’t] even compare to European universities, mostly because you just have a completely different funding system that allows you to have so much power over where this money goes. Then I would say [to] think about the curriculum: What is being taught at school? Is it possible [for] a student to enter Brandeis and leave after four years without having been confronted with any kind of climate science? I think in today’s world, in the 21st century, that shouldn’t be possible anymore because it’s everything … it’s affecting all of our lives all the time. … [Another important thing is to] get students to get involved in any kind of climate action, [because then] they’re much more likely to keep being involved in climate action throughout their careers and lives. Universities are still a place where many people have their first interaction with political moments, mobilizations and organizing. So we need to use this environment to make sure people are being equipped for something that comes after. And, of course, a university has a political voice. So how are you using that political voice?”
In closing, Neubauer added that the way that climate science is talked about differs significantly in the United States and Germany. In Germany, she noted “your political license or your public license to operate as a politician is tied, no matter where you are on the political spectrum, [to the ability] to acknowledge [that climate change is an issue]. … That makes it much easier [for] us to convince people, because you don’t [argue] over the science.” She added that “American politicians have [been] a kind of inspiration to [German] politicians when it comes to connecting climate justice [to other societal issues]. Biden once said ‘When I hear climate, I hear jobs,’ and that’s so intriguing as it ends this fairy tale of climate action taking jobs away. … So I find there’s a certain American storytelling inspiration.”
Neubauer currently hosts the Spotify Original Podcast “1,5 Grad” (“1.5 degrees”) and is completing a master’s in resource analysis and management at Georg-August University, which will be her second master’s degree. Fridays for Future’s work continues, as does Neubauer’s fight against climate change.
Special thanks to Prof. Sabine von Mering and the CGES for their help in the writing of this article.
