Climate protests: international, angry, resolute

On demonstrations, data, and chapati

The team is collecting data on who is campaigning for climate justice in different countries, how they are doing so, and what motivates them. They also take to the streets themselves for their research. Antje Daniel, for example, always attends the global climate protests in Vienna accompanied by students. There, they identify people they ask to fill out an online survey which includes questions about sociodemographic data, emotions, goals, political attitudes, and expectations of the protest. In Dhaka, during the protests in 2024 and 2025, students from Dhaka University helped conduct the surveys during the last climate strike.

Questions were also adapted to local contexts. In Uganda, for instance, questions about trust in political institutions were amended to include options for religious or local authorities. Formally speaking, there is freedom of assembly and expression in this African country. “But such activities are not possible there due to the authoritarian nature of the regime,” Antje Daniel explains. Protests take place less on the streets and more in other places, such as online.

The researchers therefore conducted the surveys in a different way. They organized activists' breakfasts at various locations, such as Mekarere University. Activists from Uganda's capital filled out the questionnaires while enjoying fruit, chapati, and soft drinks.

Who are the activists?

What are the differences between the movements? “In Austria, protests are increasingly becoming adapted to the average age of the population,” explains Antje Daniel, given that the share of protesters under 20 is declining and that of people over 65 is rising. In Uganda and Bangladesh, the movements are mainly made up of young academics between 20 and 35.

While Austria and Bangladesh have no (female) figureheads for the movement, Uganda has two: Vanessa Nakate and Hilda Nakabuye. “In Bangladesh, gender roles and gender inequality are rooted in religion and deeply entrenched,” says Antje Daniel. Only around 30 percent of the movement there is female, compared to around 60 percent in Austria.

Whereas all groups identify with the Fridays for Future label, the structures differ. In Uganda, for instance, there are many other organizations alongside FFF and the Rise Up Movement – with different focus areas from planting trees to tackling plastic pollution and other campaigns. Antje Daniel is amazed at the broad and intense activism that has developed there in an authoritarian system with limited leeway for action in the wake of Fridays for Future.

Childhood has an impact on the fight for the climate

The research team is also interested in what motivated people to become activists. “In some cases the motivation of activists in Bangladesh and Uganda is rooted in childhood experiences of floods, landslides, and forest fires. This is an important trigger for activism,” explains Daniel. Such experiences are reflected in people's emotions. Many activists in Uganda are concerned, frustrated, and angry, but less than half of those surveyed feel hopeless or powerless.

In Bangladesh, people are not only worried, but many of them also feel frustration. The delta state has long been suffering from climate impacts such as flooding, which displace people and result in fields becoming salinated. For just as long, there has been activism by youth networks and NGOs. Since 2019 they have been at work under the Fridays for Future banner.

While the movements in Uganda and Bangladesh raise awareness of climate issues among the local population – for example, through tree-planting campaigns in communities – the Austrian Fridays want to bring about change by exerting pressure on policy-makers.

Feelings of guilt and solidarity

In 2019, Austrian activists linked the climate crisis to fears about the future, such as shrinking standards of living and opportunities for action. Today, the majority feel anxious and angry.

In Uganda and Bangladesh, consequences of climate change such as health problems and food shortages have long been acute. “There, the climate crisis is interwoven with these aspects, which reinforce the experience of inequality,” explains Antje Daniel.

“In both countries, it's about climate colonialism – that is to say, inequality in the context of the climate crisis and global climate policy.” The Global North has contributed and continues to contribute more to the climate crisis, while the Global South suffers from its consequences and its demands are still not being heard enough at UN climate conferences.

But these international conferences are still important. Activists from Uganda and Bangladesh want to use the international stage to put pressure on local politicians. “It's about clarifying the question of who is to blame. In Bangladesh and Uganda, international climate policy decisions should be seen as having an impact at the national level,” says Antje Daniel. “Like a boomerang.”

United in pipeline protest

According to Daniel, the Austrian movement has spent the last three years reflecting on itself. Now it wants to use its privileges to support the Global South.

That is exactly what happened on June 2, 2023. Armed with signs and banners, local activists stood in front of the factory gates of the district heating technology company isoplus in Hohenberg, Lower Austria. The company wanted to enter into a joint venture to supply the alloy for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), which is designed to transport oil from Lake Albert in Uganda through Tanzania to the Indian Ocean. The Fridays also protested in Italy, Uganda, and Germany. In January 2024, isoplus withdrew from the contract. According to Antje Daniel, this campaign was a sign “that there is international solidarity and sharing in activism.”

How the Fridays are changing

Even beyond 2019, FFF still remains important, notes Daniels, because “at some point, mobilization does decline. Change takes place during this downward trend.” This can give rise to new things: new forms of protest, for example, or alliances with trade unions, the Last Generation, regional groups, and psychologists, grandparents, and workers who form For Future subgroups.

“Many of the early climate activists are now working in NGOs, politics, schools, or universities,” says Daniel. That's because activism shapes the individual. “Particularly those people who are active consistently over a long period of time describe it as a formative life experience that can also change political decisions in the long term.” Even beyond the protest activities and strikes, activism has a long-lasting impact on people’s biographies – specifically on personal and political behavior.

The project “Youth activism of Fridays for Future” is set to run until September 2026. In November 2025, Daniel will travel to Kampala for further field research. Understanding the movements and their agents is important, Daniel emphasizes, because “Fridays for Future remains a key player in holding governments and the international community accountable on climate policy.”