© Reuters. Climate activist Greta Thunberg joins activists protesting against the expansion of German utility RWE’s Garzweiler opencast lignite mine to Luetzerath, in Keyenberg, Germany, January 14, 2023. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen
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LUTZERATH (Reuters) – Around 6,000 protesters, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, marched through mud and rain to the German town of Luetzerath on Saturday, according to police estimates, to protest against the expansion of a lignite mine open sky.
The village cleanup in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia was agreed between RWE and the government in a deal that allowed the energy giant to demolish Lutzerath in exchange for its faster exit from coal and save five villages originally slated for the destruction.
“This is a betrayal of present and future generations… Germany is one of the biggest polluters in the world and must be held accountable,” Thunberg said at a podium, after marching holding a cardboard sign reading in German “Luetzi will is left over”. “, using an abbreviated name of the town.
As the protesters approached the village, they were confronted by riot police and some used batons to push the protesters back.
Regional police said on Twitter that they had used force to prevent people from breaking through the barriers and approaching the danger zone at the edge of the excavation area.
Earlier this week, police evicted protesters from buildings they had occupied for nearly two years in an attempt to stop the expansion of the nearby mine.
On Saturday, only a few remained camping in tree houses and in an underground tunnel, but thousands turned out to protest against the mine, which activists say symbolizes the failure of Berlin’s climate policy.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s president told German radio Deutschlandfunk on Saturday that energy policy “wasn’t always pretty” but that coal was needed more than ever in light of the energy crisis facing Europe’s largest economy. Europe.
Earlier, Finance Minister Robert Habeck told Spiegel on Friday that Lutzerath was the “wrong symbol” to protest against.
“It’s the last place where brown coal will be mined, not a symbol of more of the same, but of the last frontier.”
But activists have said Germany should stop mining brown coal and focus instead on expanding renewables.
