‘Austria wants to remain in fossil ignorance’: Climate activist group to end campaign

The climate activist group Last Generation has announced that it will end its protests and close the group’s operations in Austria, as it sees no chance of impacting the government.
“We no longer see any prospects for success,” Austria’s Last Generation branch said Tuesday in a statement. Over the past two years, the Austrian government has demonstrated “complete incompetence,” according to the group.
Last Generation argues that Austria is choosing to remain ignorant regarding its use of fossil fuels, “and thus accepts that it is jointly responsible for the deaths of billions of people” from a heating planet and ecological breakdown.
The group has been active in Austria since 2022, staging numerous direct action protests such as blocking roads, confronting politicians and gluing themselves to streets.
Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer welcomed Last Generation’s decision shortly after the announcement. “It’s good that this nonsense is over,” he wrote in a post on X.
Last year, the chancellor described the group’s protests as “extremist,” comparing them with far-right movements.
Austria — like almost all other European Union countries — is lagging behind in hitting its climate targets. Vienna is has yet to submit a draft of its so-called National Energy and Climate Plan, a core document for officials to show how they’re going to hit their share of the bloc’s emissions-cutting target for 2030, leaving it subject to an “infringement procedure” from the Commission.
While the decision to stop the protests makes it “infinitely sad,” the group expressed hope for new opportunities to emerge. It said that its resistance will continue — but did not clarify in which forms.
In recent years, climate activists across Europe have been subject to increased governmental crackdowns in the form of bans, jail time and fines. Some of their members are still facing high fines and legal costs as a result of protest actions, Last Generation said its statement.