Press release on the day of action “Get out of the gas lobby! Get out of the future Gas!”

There is no future for fossil gas.
Berlin, 25 September 2023: In Berlin, civil society is now taking its protest against the manipulative tactics of the gas industry directly to the doors of the lobby association “Zukunft Gas”. Experts from various organizations and groups such as WeSmellGas, PowerShift, urgewald, LobbyControl and 350.org critically examine the influence of the gas lobby as well as the neocolonial and climate-damaging aspects of hydrogen. The rally will be accompanied by creative actions.
Christina Deckwirth from LobbyControl: “Future Gas is doing questionable lobbying for the business of climate-damaging and foreseeably expensive gas. For this, they also stretch municipal utilities in front of their lobby carts. This secures the billions in profits of large gas companies, but does not fit the public service mission of the municipal utilities. That is why we are calling on municipal utilities to withdraw from the Future Gas gas lobby association.”
Kate Cahoon from 350.org: "Thanks to the PR work of Zukunft Gas, the Federal Government and increasingly many municipalities and municipal utilities are relying on the Trojan horse "green hydrogen". Although green hydrogen can certainly contribute to the energy transition in certain areas, it is likely to be driven by imports from countries in the global south such as Namibia and Congo - a continuation of neocolonial structures.”
Neelke Wagner from PowerShift: "Hydrogen will simply replace natural gas is a brazen lie. That hydrogen produced from natural gas can ever be climate-friendly, as well. What we need for real climate protection is a socially responsible plan for the gas phase-out and the management of the gas distribution networks. If Future Gas really cares about the future of municipal utilities, they would make suggestions.”
Sonja Meister from urgewald: “Fossil gas heats the planet twice as much. Natural gas is as harmful to the climate as coal, if the climate killer gas methane, which escapes in the supply chain, is included. Europe is now increasingly relying on liquefied petroleum gas – which is particularly harmful to the climate and often produced using environmentally harmful fracking methods. "Future Gas" should honestly change its name to "Gas without a future". We need to get out of fossil gas. "Clean gas is a dirty lie."
To the day of action:
On 25 and 26 September, demonstrations against the fossil lobby association "Zukunft Gas" will take place in many cities in Germany, including the organisations LobbyControl, the WeiterSo! collective, the Umweltinstitut München and 350.org. called. The focus is on the more than 80 municipal utilities that are still members of “Zukunft Gas”. They are called upon to end this membership in an association that prevents real climate protection and acts against the interests of the general public. The occasion for the action day is the VKU Congress, which will take place on 26 September in Cologne – probably the most important and largest meeting of the municipal energy industry in Germany (VKU = Association of Municipal Enterprises).
About the campaign:
Since May, various organizations have put pressure on the municipal utilities, including with an online petition with over 12,000 signatures and one Joint call 71 civil society organisations. This has already led to several withdrawals: Since the beginning of the year, 24 municipal utilities have left the association or disappeared from the membership list.
For further information and interview enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us. Pictures of the action are uploaded here.
Press contacts:
350.org
Kate Cahoon
kate@350.org
+49 (0)176 63 60 65 03
PowerShift
Neelke Wagner
neelke.wagner@power-shift.de
+49 (0)1575 2466 920
prehistoric forest
Sonja master
sonja.meister@urgewald.org
+49 176 64608515
LobbyControl
Steffen Pachali
presse@lobbycontrol.de
+49 30 467 26 72 11