Airport activism: climate protesters bring flights to a standstill

Climate protesters from the group Last Generation have glued themselves to a German runway. On Wednesday 24 July, climate activists forced all flights at Cologne-Bonn Airport to halt until 9:15am, when the police completed their operation to remove them from the runway.

The result has been chaos and cancellations. Posters have plastered social media with images and videos of the five protesters sitting on the runway tarmac.

The protesters are calling for Germany to reach a global agreement to end the usage of fossil fuels by 2030.

Last Generation: bringing Cologne-Bonn Airport to a halt

One of the five activists at Cologne-Bonn Airport, 21-year-old Malte Nierobisch, said:

Airports such as this are a place of injustice. We are here demanding that governments sign a fossil fuel treaty

The protest in Germany has sparked a surge of disruption to airports across Europe including in Oslo, Finland, and the UK, with climate campaigners declaring an “international uprising” against fossil fuels.

Last Generation is a climate crisis activist group mostly active in Germany. Its activists take direct action in order to get across their message that they consider themselves the last generation capable of preventing the climate crisis.

Last generation have taken part in multiple controversial protests in the last few years, from hunger striking and blocking motorways, to throwing mash potato at a Monet painting. Their peaceful but disruptive protests mark a trend in the increase of grassroots activism and climate related civil disobedience. But what is the best way to raise awareness about the planet?

How effective are climate protests?

On 31 December 2022, the climate group Extinction Rebellion (XR) declared “we quit.” Its statement highlighted that across the world, governments have failed to implement impactful change. XR said:

As we ring in the new year, we make a controversial resolution to temporarily shift away from public disruption as a primary tactic.

The group argued that its new aim is to target people in power by building a wide support base. Specifically, it’s doing this rather than subscribing to media-grabbing radicalism. In particular, it stated that:

This year, we prioritise attendance over arrest and relationships over roadblocks

XR’s decision marks it apart from the more boisterous tactics of groups such as Just Stop Oil and Last Generation. However, there is no clear answer as to which strategy is most effective.

In a report on the impact of extreme protest on public opinion, Matthew Feinberg has argued that while it might achieve more coverage, confrontational tactics may not favour the movements cause.

This can also be seen in the distinctions of a YouGov survey from August 2023. According to the results, 82% of UK respondents considered climate change to be “fairly or very important”. However, 68% were found to disapprove of Just Stop Oil (JSO). This included 44% that held a “very unfavourable” view of the campaign group.

On the other hand, academics such as Laura Thomas-Walters and Kevin Young have argued that the impact of divisive activism on public opinion is not as significant as the disruption to elite decision-makers.

Further YouGov surveys appear to suggest that JSO protests actually increase support for more moderate climate organisations such as Friends of the Earth (FoE).

More airport activism

In addition to the protest at Cologne Airport, Last Generation have announced plans for ” similar peaceful, civil protests” at airports across Europe and North America.

And they’re not the only ones. Norwegian activists cut through a chain link airport fence in Oslo. Meanwhile, Extinction rebellion supporters have blocked a fence at Helsinki Vantaa Airport.

The spiral of airport protests has also reached the UK. The Metropolitan police said:

Nine Just Stop Oil activists have been arrested this morning for conspiring to disrupt Heathrow Airport.

It seems that despite the widely criticised sentencing of five JSO activists last week has done little to stem an incoming tide of climate protest. And for the moment it appears the public is on the side of activism. Hundreds have signed an open letter which described the four to five year sentences as: