German climate protesters skip court to fly 7,000 miles to Bali

GERMANY’S climate movement has been ridiculed for defending two members who flew to Bali instead of turning up for a court hearing.

On Monday Yannick and Luisa S, activists from the Letzte Generation climate group, skipped trial at a Stuttgart court. Yannick S was accused of duress over participating in a road blockade in September, while Luisa S, who also participated in the protest, had been called as a witness.

When the judge asked why the couple had failed to appear, he was informed that they were on the Indonesia island of Bali, some 7,000 miles away, Bild newspaper reported.

During their protest, the young couple reportedly held up a banner that read “save on oil, don’t drill”.

In a statement, Letzte Generation defended their actions, saying the pair “booked their flights as private people, not as climate activists. One must keep these two things separate.”

A single passenger on a return flight to Bali generates some 4.8 tons of CO2, which is more than half of the average EU citizen’s carbon emissions for a year, according to emissions calculator website myclimate.org.

The news led to an avalanche of online criticism in Germany, where critics accused the young climate activists of hypocrisy. “It’s always other people who are to blame. For the activists, flying is bad until they themselves are on the plane to Bali,” Martin Huber, a senior figure in the conservative CSU party, wrote on Twitter.

Torsten Herbst, a parliamentarian for the centrist Free Democrats, said it was “striking” that the activists were prepared to compel commuters to stop their journey to work but were happy to jet off on holiday.

While much of the public reaction was anger, some said that the actions of two individuals shouldn’t distract from the fact that many activists were prepared to face hefty fines and even jail time for their cause.

At the court hearing, Yannick S was charged in his absence and was handed a fine of €1,000 (£880).