, a hamlet in Germany’s industrial powerhouse of North Rhine-Westphalia, where mining has deep roots and still provides thousands of jobs. Its original residents have long since been relocated, but as many as 300 activists moved in about two years ago to block a decades-old plan to expand mining operations in the area.
But images of police using water cannons and physical force against protesters as giant excavators grind into the landscape is a blow to Germany’s bid to portray itself as a climate leader. Environmental activists say returning to coal will set back Germany’s efforts to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2045 and meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit global warming to 1.5C.
It’s already reopened coal-fired power plants, despite plans to phase them out by 2038. But while other nations are bringing back limited capacity, Germany is restoring enough coal to power about 5 million homes, according to Bloomberg estimates. “Only in Germany, with 10 gigawatts, is the reversal at a significant scale,” according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
The standoff over the mine expansion has dogged Germany’s Green party for decades and risks turning into a politically explosive issue as images of police forcibly removing protesters dominate social media. Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck is a member of the Green party and it was Green ministers who negotiated the latest agreement with RWE at both the federal and state levels.
“Perhaps the protest should be directed against the fact that it takes six years for a wind turbine to be approved,” he said in an interview published on Saturday with the Berlin-based Tageszeitung newspaper. “If we want to achieve the energy transition, we need more speed.” RWE is already the largest emitter in Europe with 89 million tons of direct emissions from its power stations, according to a March 2021 study commissioned by Greenpeace.
The country also plans to keep its three remaining nuclear plants online until mid-April, beyond their original retirement date. Germany agreed to phase out nuclear power in the aftermath of Japan’s Fukushima disaster in 2011, but Scholz’s government has come under mounting pressure to further extend that deadline.
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