The fate of a tiny German village has sparked heated debate over the country’s continued use of coal and whether tackling climate change justifies breaking the law.
Key points:
- The last resident of Luetzerath left in 2022, having been forced to sell to utility company RWE
- Critics say expanding the mine will make it harder for Germany to limit global warming
- Local officials accuse protesters of being willing to “spill human blood”
Environmental activists were locked in a stand-off with police this week around the hamlet of Luetzerath, west of Cologne, which was set to be bulldozed for the expansion of a nearby lignite mine.
Protesters on Tuesday refused to heed a court ruling effectively banning them from the area.
Some dug trenches, built barricades and perched atop giant tripods in an effort to stop heavy machines from reaching the village, before police pushed them back by force.
“People are putting all of their effort, all of their lives, into this struggle to keep the coal in the ground,” Dina Hamid, a spokesperson for activist group Luetzerath Lives, said.
“If this coal is burned, we’re actually going to take down our climate goals. So we’re trying to, with our bodies, protect the climate goals.”
The debate flared up hours later at a town hall meeting in nearby Erkelenz, when one regional official accused activists of being willing to “spill human blood” to defend the now-abandoned village.
Stephan Pusch, who heads the district administration, said while he sympathised with the group’s aims, the time had come to give up Luetzerath.
The village’s last resident left in 2022 after being forced to sell to utility company RWE.
“You’ve achieved your goal. Now clear the pitch,” he said to jeers from the room.
Many disagreed, arguing the village was more than just a potent symbol for the need to stop global warming.
Studies indicated that about 110 million metric tonnes of coal could be extracted from beneath Luetzerath.
The government and RWE have said this coal was needed to ensure Germany’s energy security — squeezed by the cut in supply of Russian gas due to the war in Ukraine.
Critics counter burning so much coal would make it much harder for Germany, and the world, to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, as agreed in the 2015 Paris Climate Accord.
“Nobody wants to be out there in the cold right now, defending a forest or a village,” said Maya Rollberg, a 26-year-old student who had travelled from southern Germany.
“But I think that people have realised that they have to do that in order to [protect] future generations.”
Dietmar Jung, a retired priest attending the meeting, said he was tired of hearing officials say the law was on the side of RWE.
“They keep going back to the legal situation,” he said. “But the right to live doesn’t play a role here [for them].”
Mr Pusch warned protesters that intentionally breaking the law would not help their cause in a country where the violent seizure of power and the horrors of dictatorship were still within living memory.
“I’ll tell you honestly that I’m scared my children will grow up in a world that isn’t worth living in anymore,” he said.
“But I’m at least as scared of my children growing up in a country where everyone takes the law into their own hands.
“You won’t save the world’s climate on your own.
“[We’ll] only do so if we manage to take the majority of the population with us.”
Similar debates over how far civil disobedience can go have taken place in Germany and elsewhere in recent months amid a wave of road blockades and other dramatic actions by protesters demanding tougher measures to combat climate change.
Some climate activists have said the law is ultimately on their side, citing a 2021 ruling by the country’s Supreme Court that forced the government to step up its effort to cut emissions.
They have also noted the legally binding nature of Germany’s commitments under the Paris Accord.
Speaking after the townhall meeting, student Jannis Niethammer acknowledged the dispute over Luetzerath touched on fundamental issues.
“It’s a question of democracy and how do we actually get a democracy to move toward climate protection, toward climate justice,” he said.
Janine Wissler, a federal politician and co-leader of the opposition Left party, suggested the way out would be for the government to reverse its decision allowing the village to be razed.
“If we want to achieve our climate targets and take the Paris climate agreement seriously, then the coal beneath Luetzerath needs to stay in the ground,” she said on the sidelines of the protest.
Ms Wissler criticised an agreement struck last year between the government and utility company RWE to permit mining beneath the village in return for an earlier end to coal use in Germany.
Some experts have said that, in sum, the deal would lead to higher emissions.
“We’re already experiencing droughts, famines and floods. Climate change is happening already,” Ms Wissler said.
“And therefore, wrong decisions need to be corrected.”.
AP