Climate activist coalition to target east German coal mine in Sunday protest
Clean Energy Wire
A broad coalition of climate activist groups have said they will stage a protest at an opencast lignite mine in East Germany and call for a rapid end to coal this Sunday (25 June). “It is already clear that coal will no longer be profitable from 2030, at the latest, due to the rising CO2 price – so there is no way around an earlier coal phase-out,” said local Fridays for Future activist Ladia Soubyrand in a press release announcing the joint demonstration of the youth activist group with NGOs Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth Germany, and other organisations at the Welzow mine in the Lusatia region. The group called for a rapid and just transition that offers economic opportunities for people in the area, and accused politicians of taking reckless social risks by delaying a controlled phaseout. Regional water shortages linked to coal extraction will also be a focus of the protests, according to a report by newswire dpa. Additionally, Fridays for Future called to limit coal production in the Lusatia region to a maximum of 205 million tonnes in order to comply with the 1.5° limit of the Paris Climate Agreement. “If the current plans of the state and federal governments were to be implemented, more than three times the 1.5°-compatible amount would be burned,” the group added.
Germany’s coal exit is currently scheduled for 2038 at the latest, but the ruling coalition agreed to “ideally” pull it forward to 2030. Analysts and energy politicians have long argued that, due to increased prices in the European CO2 trading system, an earlier coal exit is very likely because the majority of coal power plants will no longer be profitable after 2030. Eastern coal mining state presidents have repeatedly rejected plans for an earlier exit, arguing the regions lack both alternative energy generation capacities and alternative sources of income, but signalled their readiness to participate in phase-out talks earlier this year. The industrial-heavy, coal-mining, west German state of North Rhine-Westphalia agreed to a 2030 exit last year.
