Dominika Lasota, the face of Poland's climate movement

Sweden has Greta Thunberg, Uganda has Vanessa Nakate, Germany has Luisa Neubauer and Poland has Dominika Lasota.

Like German campaigner Neubauer, Lasota is a young woman. Aged 21, she is seen as the main organizer of climate strikes in Poland. She regularly appears in the media at home and abroad, and travels to international conferences to meet young climate campaigners and environmental activists from other countries.

Neubauer and Lasota know each other well and work together. Unlike Thunberg, who did not attend this year's UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, both young women traveled to Egypt to represent young people, voice their concerns and try to exert an influence on politicians.

In the few days she has been in the Red Sea resort city, Lasota has already met with a number of political leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Polish President Andrzej Duda.

Lasota confronts Poland's president

Lasota reproached Duda that the energy transition in Poland was progressing too slowly. In a video of the encounter that was posted on Twitter, the Polish president can be seen smiling to himself as he tells Lasota that he doesn't know how he is supposed to make up for 30 years of neglect of this issue in such a short space of time.

When Lasota responded by insisting that Poland must "be as developed as possible in terms of clean energy," Duda replied that he would like it to "snow in the mountains and be warm in the lowlands" before abruptly ending the conversation.

"I was ready for that," Lasota told DW. "The president consistently ignores us, the climate action movement, and does not want to meet with us. And if he does talk about climate issues at all, then it is just to make fun of the problem."

Women at forefront of environmental movement

"Dominika Lasota is the face of the Polish climate action movement," said Paulina Sobiesiak-Penszko, the head of the sustainable development and climate policy program for the Warsaw-based Institute of Public Affairs, one of the biggest organizations supporting the development of Poland's civil society.

"International studies show that women are more aware of and committed to environmental and climate protection," she told DW. "In Poland too, it is mostly women who launch and lead campaigns in this field."

The institute provides women with communication training and teaches them how to handle public confrontations. Sobiesiak-Penszko pointed out that politics and the energy sector are dominated by "old white men" who often treat young female activists disrespectfully, as was the case with Duda and Lasota at COP27, she said.

Poland feels influence of Greta Thunberg

The history of the Polish climate action movement is similar to that of other European countries. Greta Thunberg's school strike in Sweden in 2018 inspired many young Poles and motivated them to take action. Grassroots groups sprang up around the country — above all in Warsaw — and joined the young people's climate strike.

Soon, more radical activists with links to the global Extinction Rebellion movement also began to take to the streets.

"It is thanks to the climate action movement that public awareness of climate change has increased," said Sobiesiak-Penszko.

Little support for climate movement in Poland

In July 2018, climate activists set up the first climate camp in Poland. It took place near the city of Konin, a region peppered with lignite mines and power stations and scarred by the impact of mining.

Yet despite the devastation caused by two centuries of mining, heavy air pollution and energy insecurity, the Fridays for Future demonstrations organized by Polish groups never attracted as many people as in other European countries.

The most recent attempt to mobilize support was only moderately successful. On October 28, a few hundred people took to the streets in Warsaw for a climate strike.

"In recent years, a whole wave of protests [such as the ones relating to Poland's strict abortion laws] has washed over Poland," explained Sobiesiak-Penszko.

"The pandemic, the war, inflation ... all that has had a really negative impact on people's sense of personal security, which means that we are all switching off a little and focusing more on our own problems."

Moving outside the bubble

Lasota spares no effort in her attempts to make as many people as possible aware of climate change. To this end, she and her fellow activists have set up the initiative Wschod — a Polish word that means both "east" and "sunrise."

The group brings together activists from across Central and Eastern Europe, and attempts to highlight the fact that the current crises in Europe — war in Ukraine and the energy crisis — are largely a result of the continent's dependency on fossil fuels.

Sobiesiak-Penszko said Polish climate activists are more restrained than their fellow activists further west.

"I think it is a good strategy because if they were to combine the fight against climate change with anti-capitalism or the fight for LGBTQ rights, for example, they would just stay inside their bubble. And in Poland, the polarization of society is the main problem," she said.

She went on to say that every effort has to be made to prevent climate change from becoming yet another divisive issue.

Many see activists as the enemy

However, social media comments on articles about Lasota's activities indicate the issue is dividing Polish society. Many of these comments call on Lasota to be open about her lifestyle, or point out even the slightest inconsistencies between her demands (such as a reduction in personal carbon consumption) and her day-to-day behavior.

"At the moment, most questions that are put to me relate to my trip to Egypt," Lasota told DW. She traveled by bus and train from Poland to Turkey, where she took a plane to Sharm el-Sheikh — a move for which she was heavily criticized.

"If I had done the whole journey by land, I would have had to travel through Syria, which is dangerous because of the war there," she explained.

"I don't know why so many people see me as the enemy. The real enemy is in the ministries and in the headquarters of energy companies."

This article was originally published in German.