Скачать или смотреть Climate activists continue Luetzerath protest

(11 Jan 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Luetzerath, North Rhine-Westphalia – 11 January 2023
1. Mid of riot police securing works to clear street and access to town demolition
2. Climate activists on roof of a house
3. Wide of truck clearing barricades
4. Mid of activists on the roof of a house
5. Various of clearing
6. Close of activist hanging from ropes attached to wire
7. Mid of a climate activist hanging from ropes attached to wire
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Tukan, nickname of a climate activist:
”So, we are basically here to strike for a fairer, for a cooler and more climate-just world.”
9. Wide of activists chanting, UPSOUND (English): "When do we want it? Now! What do we want? Climate justice!”
10. Climate activist Petra Schumann watching clearing operation
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Petra Schumann, climate activist:
”Nobody needs the coal, only RWE (German energy company) needs the coal to make money. And that’s the big problem here.”
12. Wide of the site and activists singing, UPSOUND (English): ”Power to the people, because the people got the power”
STORYLINE:
The fate of a tiny village has sparked heated debate in Germany over the country's continued use of coal and whether tackling climate change justifies breaking the law.

Environmental activists have been locked in a standoff with police who started eviction operations on Wednesday in the hamlet of Luetzerath, west of Cologne, that's due to be bulldozed for the expansion of a nearby lignite mine.

Some stones and fireworks were thrown at officers in riot gear as they moved into the village, clearing roadblocks and removing protesters.

Activists had refused to heed a court ruling Monday effectively banning them from the area.

”Nobody needs the coal, only RWE (German energy company) needs the coal to make money. And that’s the big problem here”, activist Petra Schumann told reporters.

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.

”We are basically here to strike for a fairer, for a cooler and more climate just world”, said Tukan, one of the climate activists.

The debate flared up hours later at a townhall 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 that while he sympathized with the protesters' 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.

Many disagreed, arguing that the village is more than just a potent symbol for the need to stop global warming.

Studies indicate that about 110 million metric tons of coal could be extracted from beneath Luetzerath.

The government and RWE say this coal is needed to ensure Germany's energy security — squeezed by the cut in supply of Russian gas due to the war in Ukraine.

Critics counter that burning so much coal would make it much harder for Germany, and the world, to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) as agreed in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

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.

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