Greta Thunberg blocks Brussels boulevard in fossil fuel protest

Dozens of demonstrators on Saturday blocked a key road in the city of Brussels, calling on the European Union to end subsidies for oil and gas.

Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and a group of Extinction Rebellion activists padlocked their arms to the ground in front of the Rogier metro station, a few kilometers from the European Parliament and European Commission buildings. Quickly surrounded by police, the protesters chanted a chorus of “the oceans are rising and so are we.” Arrests have since been made.

“Our politicians have failed us,” said Paolo Destilo, a spokesperson for United for Climate Justice, which helped organize Saturday’s protest. “European leaders’ continued support for the fossil fuel industry raises serious questions about their commitment to effective climate action.”

Asked by POLITICO whether Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is a green champion, Thunberg shook her head and replied “no.”

The 21-year-old founder of the Fridays for Future movement was later detained as Belgian authorities moved in to break up the demonstration.

Among the demonstrators gathering at a simultaneous demonstration outside the Parliament on the city’s Place du Luxembourg were Commission employees frustrated with the slow progress on climate action.

“I worked directly on the trilogues of the environment action program, so I know how tricky it can be to get things done,” said one staffer, granted anonymity to speak freely.

“There’s a lot of tools the institutions have now to fight climate change, but since the election there’s been a lot of backtracking,” this staffer said. “It’s now all about competitiveness and the ‘clean industrial deal,’ whatever that means. The urgency has been lost — the Parliament has shifted to the right, the Commission in many ways has shifted to the right — and discussion of the climate has faded into the background.”

According to Simone Tagliapietra, an economist and energy expert at Bruegel think tank, “we have seen an incapability of the European governments to phase out subsidies to fossil fuel or at least to make them more targeted.”

The bloc now faces an “uphill battle” to revise its Energy Taxation Directive, which effectively provides cash to keep gasoline and diesel prices low, Tagliapietra said. Until the directive is revised, “the European taxation system remains highly conducive to fossil fuels,” he added.

Von der Leyen has urged her incoming top team in the next Commission to begin the process of phasing out subsidies for oil and gas. However, a Commission report published last October found the EU is still spending more than €100 billion a year subsidizing fossil fuels, a figure that spiked as a result of the energy crisis following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Others, however, argue that the EU needs to stop simply tinkering with policies and embrace a radically different model, even if it means sacrificing economic growth.

“We are saying that technology won’t save us,” said veteran climate activist Sebastian Gonzato, one of the co-founders of Scientists Rebellion Belgium. “We also need to look at production and consumption and we need to radically change our lifestyles. It’s not about getting used to electric vehicles or balancing the electricity grid, it’s really deep structural changed about how we live.”