London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Von der Leyen meets youth climate activists to talk about Russian energy

Von der Leyen meets youth climate activists to talk about Russian energy

The meeting follows negotiations by European leaders last week to wean themselves off Russian energy.
The fight to help Europe break free from its Russian energy addiction continued Saturday when activists from the Greta Thunberg-inspired Fridays for Future movement met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The activists — including a Ukrainian refugee — spoke with von der Leyen about accelerating the EU's shift to renewables, the challenges involved in persuading reticent member states such as Hungary to back a Russian oil embargo, and tentatively discussed meeting again at a conference in April.

This marks the third meeting between the movement and von der Leyen since its inception in 2018, and comes after FFF activists met Polish conservative MEPs last week to discuss a Russian oil embargo, overturning a longstanding rivalry between the two sides. It also follows negotiations between EU leaders on weaning themselves off Russian energy at a European Council summit, which resulted in an EU-U.S. agreement on Friday to increase the bloc's imports of liquefied natural gas from the U.S.

"It was incredibly interesting to hear her strongly committed to shifting away from fossil fuels," Dominika Lasota, a 20-year-old activist from Poland said of the meeting with von der Leyen. "She views that now perhaps is the moment to finally abandon the destructive sources of energy."

"We need to set up a new normal ... and make sure when the last bomb falls on Ukraine it will also mean the end of the fossil fuel system that has been at the foundation of the crisis," Lasota said.

The activists also addressed how the EU should protect Ukrainian refugee rights in the longer term. Lasota said von der Leyen "believes now is a lesson and a moment to think about Europe's approach to people seeking refuge in the EU equally and differently to what has been there in 2015." More than 3.5 million refugees have crossed into the EU from Ukraine since Vladimir Putin's war began more than a month ago.

"Many of the things that seemed impossible within the EU are now some things we're discussing actively," Lasota said.

The four activists at the meeting included 16-year-old Ukrainian campaigner Arina Bilai, who fled from Kyiv to Warsaw one week ago, as well as Hungary's Lili Aschenbrenner and German activist Luisa Neubauer.

"Europe needs to get rid of fossil fuels," said von der Leyen on Twitter following the meeting. "Rolling out renewables quickly can help us become independent of the Russian gas, oil and coal which Putin uses to finance his war machine."

The activists said they had agreed to stay in contact with von der Leyen.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×