Conflicts & War

Clashes as police evict climate activists from German coal mine

Berlin, Jan 11 (EFE).- Clashes erupted at a village in western Germany as police moved to evict climate activists who have set up camp in a bid to stop the expansion of a coal mine.

Protesters threw stones, molotov cocktails and fireworks at the police officers as they attempted to clear the protesters from Lützerath, where the RWE energy consortium plans to extend the Garzweiler surface mine, the local police department in North-Rhine Westphalia said on social media.

“The evacuation of Lützerath has begun. The area is being fenced off. People in the cordoned-off area currently have the opportunity to leave the place without further police measures,” police said.

RWE previously said it planned to start work on Garzweiler II mine Wednesday beginning with the construction of a 1.5-kilometer security wall to fence off the area.

The company plans to bulldoze Lützerath in order to mine for brown coal, a fossil fuel. The village’s local residents have already been relocated from the settlement.

The German government had planned to expand the Garzweiler mine, which sits beside the village, in 2030 but brought the plans forward as the country weans itself off Russian gas following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. EFE

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