Dominika Lasota (born 26 November 2001) is a Polish climate justice activist who has been an active organizer in the Fridays for Future movement in Poland, at COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021 and in face-to-face talks with European leaders on climate justice and its relation to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The New York Times described her as characterising a "new brand of activist" in linking climate activism with opposition to the Russian invasion. She is a founding member of the Consultative Council, created as the result of the October 2020 Polish protests.
Childhood and education
Lasota was born on 26 November 2001. She attended Stonyhurst College in England for two years around 2018–2019 and participated in youth camps in the United States.
Climate activism
School Strike for Climate
Lasota is an activist in the School Strike for Climate (aka Fridays for Future) movement and active in campaigning on European climate law and for a Just Transition, an economic transformation to a green economy that protects workers.
Climate activism in Poland
Within Poland, Lasota was described by Paulina Sobiesiak-Penszko of the Polish Institute of Public Affairs in 2022 as "the face of the Polish climate action movement", and by Deutsche Welle as "the main organizer of climate strikes in Poland".
Protests
On 15 June 2020, Lasota was one of the activists holding a happening in front of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland to pressure the Polish government on climate crisis issues in the 19 June 2020 European Council meeting. Lasota argued that since scientists' advice was listened to during the COVID-19 pandemic, the advice of scientists in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment and Special reports should also be listened to.
Lasota criticised the failure of the Prime Minister's staff to intervene in an attack on a climate activist. The attack occurred during a meeting between politicians and the public in Bydgoszcz on 26 June, in relation to the 2020 Polish presidential election. Several "older people" attacked climate activist Malwina Chmara, "just 1.5–2 metres from the Prime Minister", according to Lasota. Lasota stated that "nothing was done to stop the attack". Lasota and Chmara said that they didn't understand the reason for the violent attacks, and they found it hurtful that neither the prime minister's nor president's office apologised for the failure to intervene.
In an August 2020 protest in front of the , led by minister Jacek Sasin, Lasota stated that politicians excluded ordinary people from decision-making in relation to the climate crisis, instead favouring the Polish coal lobby.
In a protest in Bydgoszcz in September 2020, she argued that the climate crisis affected people unequally since poorer people were less able to protect their houses from hurricanes and floods. She stated that effects of the climate crisis felt in Poland included the April 2020 forest fires in Biebrza National Park and farmers' losses due to drought. Lasota stated that she and the other climate activists intended to "challenge the Polish prime minister to a fair transformation" in relation to global warming.
Media
In July 2022, together with atmospheric physicist and climatologist , Lasota was interviewed on TVN24 about the increased occurrence of droughts in Poland.
COP26
At the November 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Lasota, together with other Fridays for Future activists including Vanessa Nakate and Nicole Becker, held a protest on 8 November, prior to a speech by former US president Barack Obama, arguing that he had failed to fulfill his promise to provide billion in climate funding to developing countries. Later during COP26, Lasota argued that "the climate crisis has a gender. It's fueled by a lot of privileged white men from the global north, especially from the west. ... it's not a surprise that it is women who step up." Lasota, Nakate and Greta Thunberg met Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland, during the conference. Glasgow newspaper The Herald described Lasota, Thunberg and Nakate as leaders in limiting global warming. Psychology lecturer Yvonne Skipper described Lasota and her colleagues' meeting with Sturgeon as having "a galvanising effect" of encouraging other young people to take action against the climate emergency.