The battle for a deserted village

Can the climate movement save Lützi?

Photo by Chris Münch on Unsplash

The story

The Green Party have risked the wrath of young climate activists by organizing a deal for energy giant RWE to dig up a village in the Rhineland.

The company needs to get at lignite under the village to fuel two local power stations. The 600 MW power stations are to keep burning coal for an extra 15 months beyond December in order to cover the gaps created by Russia turning off the gas taps.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck, the Greens’ most high profile politician, personally negotiated the deal.

What he got in return was an agreement from RWE to close its lignite mines in the Rhine region eight years early. Over 150 years of coal mining in the reinische Revier will thus come to an end in 2030 rather than in 2038.

For Habeck, the deal was “a milestone” on Germany’s road to carbon neutrality - one that will see it release 280 million fewer tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.

But Germany’s young climate activists are far from happy.

The deal shows the Gre…