For some, the reduction of greenhouse gases is not going fast enough. Others doubt that climate change is happening or is caused by human activity. Rarely is a distinction made between climate change, climate protection policy and the way how climate change is under discussion. Different views are nevertheless indispensable for a democratic culture and its freedom of speech. If many people get involved, a broad process of awareness can be triggered, and the instrumentalisation of the issue by one side or the other can be disenchanted. And at the same time, the dramatic nature of the change could become clear. How to deal with it? What makes it so difficult to change the climate change? What needs to be transformed in terms of the energy supply? Is the arms industry the No. 1 climate polluter? To what extent should citizens change their consumption behaviour? What structural changes are necessary? When are moral arguments aimed at individual behaviour convincing?
These are some of the questions discussed during the workshop from 5th to 10th July 2021 at our partner organisation Action Synergy in Athens. The contribution to our online course “Criticism of climate protection policy – arguments and counter-arguments” was presented and will be published in November 2021.