By Dr. Godela von Kirchbach and Eva Riemer
Co-chairs European Grandparents for Climate
On July 18th a court in London passed a five-year sentence for Roger Hallam and four-year terms on Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin simply for being present at a Zoom conference planning civil disobedience as protest against the deficient climate policy protection in the UK. No action was actually carried out. We as European Grandparents for Climate are deeply worried and shocked about the outcome of the trial against these five climate activists from „Just Stop Oil“.
The repressive way in which the trial was conducted and the shockingly disproportionate sentences for the defendants seem to be intended as intimidation for climate activists. The fact that the scientific testimony about climate change was not admitted as evidence and that instead the judge qualified the concern about climate change as „political and philosophical beliefs” and told the jury to ignore these in their deliberations is scandalous. All in all, the way in which the trial was conducted served to keep all consideration of the defendants’ rightful concern about climate out of the proceedings thus invalidating decisive facts.
We fully agree with the criticism that the UN rapporteur for environmental defenders, Michel Forst, has voiced about these proceedings: “I fail to see how exposing Mr Shaw to a multiyear prison sentence for being on a Zoom call that discussed the organisation of a peaceful environmental protest is neither reasonable nor proportionate, nor pursues a legitimate public purpose. Rather, I am gravely concerned that a sanction of this magnitude is purely punitive and repressive.”
We European Grandparents strongly protest against all attempts across Europe to unduly suppress legitimate, non-violent climate protest and to intimidate climate activists. Climate change is not a private and subjective conviction but an existential threat to humanity. Therefore, it is not only legitimate but imperative to demand decisive action for climate protection. Non-violent, civil disobedience in such cases is more than justified and no reason for severe sentencing. Instead, it is a right to demand that the goals of the Paris Agreement are finally consequentially pursued by implementing the necessary practical steps.
Vienna, August 25th, 2024