The days when climate change was seen as a distant abstract threat are long gone, including in Luxembourg where its effects are now clearly felt.

On Sunday afternoon, the climate collective KliKo and youth group move. staged a protest action under the slogan "We just have to keep waiting", outside the Chamber of Deputies.

Their aim: to draw attention to the reality of the climate crisis and question how much longer decisive action will be delayed.

At the heart of the protest was a symbolic roundtable, meant to feature politicians discussing the climate crisis and potential solutions. However, as KliKo spokesperson Nathalie Schroeder explained, the politicians invited to the discussion never appeared, which was orchestrated to make a point.

Schroeder described the protest as an absurdist performance, inspired by Samuel Beckett’s play "Waiting for Godot", in which characters wait endlessly for someone who never arrives.

The organisers argue that young people and citizens in Luxembourg are still waiting in vain for an active and effective climate policy.

The protest sought to expose not only the reality that the climate crisis already has concrete, everyday consequences, but also the perception among activists that political action is lagging dangerously behind.

The organisers pointed to last summer, which marked the hottest on record in Luxembourg since measurements began in 1947, with an average temperature of 20.6°C, some 2.7°C higher than the reference period from 1991 to 2020, as evidence that the effects are no longer theoretical.

Schroeder noted that future summers are likely to continue breaking records. She highlighted the fact that many Luxembourgers experienced the direct impact of extreme heat last year, with people reluctant to go outside and widespread forest fires in neighbouring countries causing smoke to reach Luxembourg.

For the organisers, these are clear signs that the climate crisis is already disrupting daily life.

For KliKo and move., the demand is clear: concrete steps must be taken immediately. The protest was not only meant to raise awareness of the crisis, but to urge politicians to pursue faster and more ambitious solutions.

The organisers emphasised that current efforts are insufficient, calling on political parties to prioritise the climate crisis in their election programmes over the next two years. In their view, an absence of climate policy is even more damaging than a frustrating or inadequate one.

By staging "We just have to keep waiting", the two organisations are putting a stark question to the public and politicians alike: how much longer can we afford to wait?