EUROPE: In Germany record heat meets climate action fatigue

As water runs short on Rhine, ships are left high and dry – Image: Michael Probst/AP Photo/picture alliance

For the German government climate action does not seem to be a priority — despite record temperatures, heat-related deaths and drought. Why don’t more people take to the streets in protest?

When Lars Werner of the “Last Generation” glued himself to the road four years ago to protest for greater climate action, Germany had not yet seen 12,500 heat-related deaths (Germany’s number for 2026 so far), or record temperatures across western Europe, and fully loaded ships were still navigating the Rhine without difficulty.

“Of course, I could say ‘I told you so,’ because it was foreseeable and comes as no surprise whatsoever,” Werner tells DW.

“The fact is, even back then, I was constantly explaining in my presentations that the Rhine would eventually run dry during hot summers and that this would have an incredible impact on the economy.”

Something very strange is happening in Germany in the summer of 2026: While entire villages are being evacuated due to forest fires, farmers are losing around their harvest to drought, and hospital patients and the elderly in nursing homes face an acute threat to their lives in buildings with no air conditioning, the federal government remains astonishingly quiet.

Despite the crisis, it has still not convened a “heat summit.”

“It is utterly irrational for the federal government to resort to tinkering with regulations — such as lifting the Sunday ban on truck traffic — in the hope of somehow scraping by without implementing a comprehensive climate protection policy for the long or even short term,” Werner argues.

Activist Lars Werner used to glue himself to the street in Munich in protest against CO2 emissions – Image: Benjamin Rückert

Climate protesters Fridays for Future Germany: not the same group from a few years ago

The government no longer has to worry about “Last Generation” protesters calling out its inaction by setting up road blockades. The climate activists halted their protests two years ago, worn down by hostility, fines and prison sentences. Now, the task of fiercely criticizing political decision-makers on climate policy falls primarily to the Fridays for Future Germany (FFF) movement.

“The federal government is doing virtually nothing when it comes to effective climate policy. Instead, various ‘pseudo-solutions’ are being promoted — such as dredging the Rhine to make it deeper or lifting the Sunday driving ban for trucks,” FFF spokesperson Linda Kastrup told DW. She deplores what she sees as short-term fixes for the symptoms of the climate crisis, and notes that effectively nothing sustainable is being done.

Only a few hundred protesters turned out for a demonstration outside the Chancellery in Berlin a week ago. It was a far cry from the protests in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to demand climate action.

A recent study by the Bertelsmann Foundation found that 80% of people in Germany are worried about climate change, and more than 50% want to see more government spending on climate protection. But that doesn’t mean they take to the streets.

Kastrup is not surprised.

“When Chancellor Friedrich Merz completely dismisses and ignores climate policy — when we see tens of thousands of heat-related deaths in Germany alone yet not a single word is said about it — it inevitably leaves people with the impression in their private lives that climate protection doesn’t matter. Naturally, that makes it very difficult to motivate people to take to the streets,” she says.

In addition, there has been a rise in hateful speech directed at climate activists on social media.

“Two days ago, I posted a reel and within a very short time, there were 2,000 hateful comments on it,” says Kastrup.

Climate focus shifted to Ukraine, Gaza

Sebastian Haunss, a researcher in political science at the University of Bremen, says it is surprising that the scorching summer of 2026 has not led to climate protests. He finds it remarkable that on the one hand, more and more people in Germany are installing solar power systems, but on the other, they take vacations on environmentally damaging cruise ships.

He sees several reasons for this development.

“A strong counter-position has emerged,” he says. “Specifically, political actors like the AfD [the far-right populist Alternative for Germany Party, Eds.] are pursuing an agenda that opposes climate protection regulations. Such actors — whether at the international or national level — did not exist just a few years ago.”

Also, Haunss points out that large organizations like Fridays for Future have been replaced by a vast number of local groups, who operate largely out of the public eye. However, a pivotal event could bring people back onto the streets in large numbers at any moment, he says.

“Then there is the competition for attention; the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine pushed the climate issue out of the spotlight, and current economic concerns also play a major role,” says Haunss, adding that many of those who took to the streets against climate change a few years ago are now focusing on different topics: “In some cases, their issues have shifted, and other topics — such as the war in Gaza and solidarity with Palestine — have moved to the forefront:”

A divided government

German Environment Minister Carsten Schneider of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) now wants to amend the constitution, the Basic Law, to make heat protection a joint responsibility of the federal government, the states, and the municipalities. However, the larger coalition partner, the center-right bloc of the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), is skeptical and cites “legal concerns.”

“Within the coalition, I do indeed see us — the SPD — as the bulwark for energy transition to renewables,” Nina Scheer, energy policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group, tells DW. “All my colleagues in our parliamentary group would like to achieve more in terms of climate protection. But we also have to accept setbacks regarding climate measures in order to maintain unity within the coalition.”

For instance, she says, she voted in favor of making air travel cheaper and expanding regional airports, although she personally finds it wrong.

Scheer has long advocated for a faster expansion of renewable energy, and does not see eye to eye with Economics Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU), who favors gas over wind and solar power for energy supply.

“Reiche goes around pushing the narrative that while we do want climate protection and remain committed to the goals, renewables are simply too expensive. And to that, one has to say: ‘No, that is simply not true,'” says Scheer.

Under the Paris Agreement and the national Climate Action Act, Germany has committed to achieving climate neutrality by 2045. However, recent statements by some politicians raise doubts as to whether the federal government is pursuing this goal with great determination.

“We cannot halt climate change from Germany alone,” said Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently.

SPD politician Scheer considers this a disastrous statement.

“Fundamentally, it is a rejection of greater climate action, even though we ought to be stepping up our efforts,” she says.

DW.com/NAN 15-08-26

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