Thousands protest plans to destroy German village for coal mine

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Thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday against plans to bulldoze a community in western Germany to expand a coal mine that environmentalists believe should be closed, not expanded.

The impending bulldozing of the pastoral village of Lutzerath is currently raising questions about a German law that is said to be outdated and that prioritizes extractive industries over green policies. These practices highlight the challenges a country dependent on coal will face as it attempts to pivot away from fossil fuels.

Germany made the decision at the end of 2021 to shut down three of its nuclear power plants, as part of a plan to phase out nuclear energy. The move reduced the country's power output by four gigatons. Germany intends to phase out nuclear energy entirely by the end of 2022 and plans to increase renewable energy production. 

According to the German news agency DPA, police said in the afternoon that the rally in Luetzerath, approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Cologne, went off quietly. Approximately 2,000 individuals took part, according to DPA.

It happened just weeks after the village's final farmer sold his land to the electricity firm RWE after losing his eviction case in court. The community is still populated by activists, some of whom have erected tree huts to protest the expansion of the adjacent Garzweiler mine.

Climate activists believe that the community and others nearby should not be razed because burning the remaining coal in the earth hinders Germany's attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Some German authorities have argued that in order to minimize the country's imports of Russian fossil fuels in the medium term, Germany must rely on other energy sources, notably the lignite coal produced at Garzweiler.

Coal-fired power stations near the mine are among the European Union’s biggest emitters of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.

Recent opinion polls show a significant increase in voter support for the environmentalist Greens party ahead of next month’s regional election in North Rhine-Westphalia, where the mine is located.