Siemens Offers German Fridays For Future Leader A Board Position On Energy Spinoff: She Says No
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Luisa Neubauer, 23, the German face of the campaign group inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who has campaigned alongside her, said on Monday the position would jeopardise her independence if she had taken up the offer from its chief executive, Joe Kaeser, made at a meeting in Berlin on Friday. The two met as protests by Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion were held in 40 cities across Germany, including outside Siemens’ Munich headquarters, against a central Queensland coalmine that will open up one of the world’s biggest untouched coal basins. Neubauer had hoped to persuade Kaeser to withdraw from the project, for which Siemens has won an €18m contract to provide the rail infrastructure.
At the meeting in Berlin, Neubauer was offered a position by Kaeser in either the supervisory board or leadership council of Siemens Energy, a spin-off business which hopes to head a new generation of energy-efficient technology. It is due to split from the main company in the spring and to go public in September on Germany’s Dax index.
She said on Monday she had turned down the offer. “If I were to take it up, I would be obliged to represent the company’s interests and could never be an independent critic of Siemens,” she explained. “That is not compatible with my role as [a] climate activist.”
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Kaeser, who has made much of the company’s pledge to become carbon neutral by 2030, last month tweeted his recognition of the activists’ complaints about the mine, promising he would “diligently look into the matter” and “get back” to the protesters. He pointed out a decision would “not be easy” due to the various interest groups involved, including shareholders, customers and the public.
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Neubauer has referred to the Siemens’ project as an “inexcusable mistake”. She told the news agency DPA: “We asked Kaeser to do everything possible to stop the Adani mine. Instead he will now profit from this disastrous project. “This is so last century, and Joe Kaeser is making an unforgivable mistake,” she added, emphasising that Siemens’ decision threatened climate goals to reduce the rise in global warming by two degrees.
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/01/15/news/climate-activist-refuses-siemens-offer-seat-energy-board