Rejected complaint

Verdict against activist: judge denies climate change

The activist took part in this action in November 2022. He was punished and appealed.

(Bild: APA/ERWIN SCHERIAU)

The reasoning of a judge at the Styrian Provincial Administrative Court has caused outrage. He had dismissed the appeal of a climate activist who had been convicted of blocking the Graz Opera Ring in November 2022. The judge also used a pseudo-scientific work to justify his decision.

In the judge's ruling from October 2023, which was first reported in the Kleine Zeitung newspaper, the judge wrote that the scientific consensus on man-made climate change was a "controversial hypothesis". This was also stated by the complainant. Although this consensus is "controversial", it is increasingly being used to justify political control mechanisms such as the CO2 tax, according to the judge.

Judge: "State of emergency" does not exist
The "emergency" with which the climate activist argued is therefore not present. "Even if one assumes human influence on the global climate, there is a lack of immediacy of danger because climate changes are known to take place over periods of many years," it says. Even if this were the case, the roadblock by the Last Generation activists was "not even abstractly" suitable for averting the "presumed imminent danger of the collapse of human civilization due to climate change". The activist had to pay a fine of 225 euros for the blockade.

Climate protest is first and foremost a political ideology.

Der Richter in seiner Begründung

From an "ideology-free perspective", the court was unable to see "what concrete imminent danger is involved in global warming, which could lead to the collapse of human civilization", the ruling continued. Climate protest is "first and foremost a political ideology. This is mainly represented by so-called green and other parties and political groups," said the judge, who was formerly a director in the Styrian FPÖ parliamentary group. Climate protection is not a high priority for the FPÖ, many measures are rejected by them.

A blockade of the last generation in Graz

(Bild: Sepp Pail, Krone KREATIV)

Argumentation with a pseudo-scientific pamphlet
Particularly abstruse: the judge counters the scientific report by the recognized Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), to which the climate activist refers, with the publication "There is no climate emergency" and claims that "a global network of over 1750 scientists and experts" helped write it.

However, this paper is not a scientific document, but contains assertions that have already been refuted. The "World Climate Declaration", as the paper is also called, was signed by more than 1100 people, many of whom have links to climate change sceptic organizations or companies active in the fossil fuel sector. The IPPC's 6th World Climate Report, on the other hand, comprises 9000 pages and provides evidence of man-made global warming.

Judge sees no bias
It is explosive that three other climate activists from the Last Generation stood before the same judge on Tuesday. They had been fined 750 euros by the police in April 2023 for blocking a road and lodged an appeal. The three activists accused the judge of bias because he had already justified other sentences "with denial of man-made climate change", as the Last Generation put it. However, the court rejected the bias claim.