Hundreds of climate activists, Greta Thunberg, have been evicted by police from protest sites around the German village of Lützerath as the government fights to engage public dissent over the expansion of a nearby coal mine.
Activists have been squatting for more than two years in Lützerath, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, to protest against the Garzweiler coal mine plan through German power company RWE.
RWE owns the village and almost all of its original population was evicted, prior to its planned demolition for mine expansion.
But protesters have occupied buildings and tree houses for months, in some cases years, hoping to prevent development.
Police conducted a first operation to clear the militants’ domain on January 11, after the German government reached an agreement with RWE that the mine’s expansion could continue under certain conditions. Ministers say the task is for Germany’s energy security.
In exchange for permission to expand Garzweiler to Lützerath, RWE agreed to extract coal from its strength resources until 2030, 8 years ahead of schedule, and abandon plans to expand the mine to other surrounding settlements.
Climate protesters say an expansion of mining activity will boost climate substitution and undermine the German government to combat climate substitution. One told the BBC that extracting new coal is like “throwing the Paris Agreement in the trash”. Lignite coal, which is mined at Garzweiler, is the top polluting fossil fuel.
Speaking to activists on Jan. 14 as part of a giant demonstration in the fields outside Lützerath, Thunberg said Germany is “standing in the way right now” by allowing the coal mine to expand. through police from a nearby protest site on January 15, along with other demonstrators.
In total, German police say they have evicted some three hundred activists from Lützerath and surrounding spaces in recent days, paving the way to secure the site. Tension between activists and police is high, and police are criticized for water cannons and batons to eliminate activists.
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