COP23: Thousands protest German coal use ahead of UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn

Times of News

6 years ago

Thousands of protesters marched through the former West German capital Saturday demonstrating against the use of fossil fuels.

Carrying banners with slogans that read “Revolution, not pollution,” “Frack off our land” and “Trump: Climate genocide,” participants criticized the German government’s reliance on coal-powered plants for the country’s energy.

Organizers estimated the number of demonstrators to be around 25,000, while police put the number of protesters at 11,000.

Sabine Minniger of the charitable organization Brot für die Welt (Bread for the World) said the higher-than-expected turnout was a “clear signal” to boost the pace of climate protection.

Demonstrators face-paint in central Bonn

Wind and solar the way forward

Germany’s version of Friends of the Earth, the Bund für Umwelt- und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND), urged political parties thrust by September’s federal election into negotiating the next coalition government in Berlin to drop coal and instead commit to sustainable sources such as wind and solar power.

BUND chairman Hubert Weiger told the crowd that Germany must renounce its 150-year industrial extraction of the fossil fuel – lying in large open-cast mines near Cologne and eastern Germany’s Lausitz region – to meet its share of UN climate rescue targets set in Paris in 2015.

“The federal government must start to consequently implement the agreed climate targets,” said Weiger, referring to Germany still being ranked among the top 15 coal production nations.

Anton Hofreiter, the caucus leader of the opposition Greens in the Bundestag who are involved in the current Berlin coalition talks, said his party was insisting on implementation.

“For us it’s clear that a [potential] coalition agreement will contain real climate protection measures,” Hofreiter said on the fringe of the Bonn demonstration.

Bike protesters come from Cologne

Additionally, some 1,000 cyclists rode from Cologne, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) away, to Bonn to underscore the need to renounce fossil-fuel motoring.

Cycling to Bonn to push climate goals

From Monday, West Germany’s former capital, now a hub for 20 UN entities, including agencies to avert desertification and species loss, will host the two-week World Climate Conference, known as COP23.

Some 23,000 governmental and non-governmental delegates from 197 countries, chaired by the Pacific nation of Fiji, will focus on ways to implement the Paris target of restraining climate warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

ipj/jlw (epd, dpa, KNA, AFP)

Landscape revolution

Constant construction

Brown coal lies in seams between sand and clay underground. To get to this, the surface of the earth is stripped away. The coal is transported via conveyor belts to nearby power plants, and burned to produce energy. Coal extracted at the Hambach mine (pictured above) alone produces 5 percent of Germany’s electricity supply – about a quarter of all electricity in Germany comes from brown coal.

Landscape revolution

Jobs and smoke

German power company RWE says it provides 2,000 jobs in the Rhineland mining region. The brown coal industry employs around 21,000 people in all of Germany. Yet brown coal or lignite is among the most-polluting fossil fuels available – it emits about twice as many carbon dioxide emissions as natural gas.

Landscape revolution

Entire villages displaced

When the village Lohn in Eschweiler became part of the mining zone, nearly 700 people were resettled into Neu-Lohn, some kilometers away. As RWE seeks to extract more coal from the region over the years to come, thousands of people will be forced from their homes. The villages are literally wiped off the face of the Earth – although graves are reburied.

Landscape revolution

CO2rbonized!

The highly polluting brown coal operations have been the target of protest for years. RWE has permission to extract brown coal in the Rhineland mining area until 2045. Yet Germany still hasn’t clarified how it intends to reach its emission reduction pledges while continuing its massive brown coal mining.

Landscape revolution

Civil disobedience

Environmental activists from around the world have occupied the forest around Hambach off and on since 2012, protesting plans to expand the mine into the ancient forest there. Police clear the camp with some frequency. The 5,500 hectares of forest, including old-growth, represents an ecologically valuable area.

Landscape revolution

Renewed soils

New plantings take root in soils that have been laid bare by mining. Over seven years, RWE has seeded plants such as Lucerne, which loosens compacted soil and helps to enrich it with nitrogen. The goal is to make this land arable – however, it will take some years until the fields can be used by farmers.

Landscape revolution

Wildlife also relocated

Also animals have been forced from their habitats. Here, RWE biologists use old paint buckets to trap newts. The amphibians enter the bucket through the large hole on the side, and are later released into suitable spots.

Landscape revolution

Rooted in the soil

Those who don’t suffer from vertigo can visit a restaurant atop the “Goltsteinkuppe” slag heap for a view over the vast landscape. On the horizon, the 300-meter-high “Sophienhöhe” can be seen – with its 100-kilometer network of hiking trails. RWE must restore spent mining land, including mitigation of CO2 emissions – new forests, playgrounds and sports facilities are the result.

Landscape revolution

Leisure attraction plans

The largest lake in Germany is planned for the hole that is the Hambach mine. Filling of lake is expected to take 60 years, ending by 2100. The area is planned to become a leisure attraction, boosting tourism and creating new jobs when those in mining industry have dried out.

Landscape revolution

The alternative and the uncertainty

Highly polluting brown coal has been described as a fuel of the past – the future points to renewable energy sources, such as wind power. But even using former mining land for wind turbines might not work out, as some point out how it’s susceptible to landslides. There’s even the possibility that planned leisure projects won’t be carried out – if RWE can’t make enough money with brown coal.

Author: Karin Jäger / clg