‘Lützi stay!’ At the edge of the 1.5°C
- A climate activist is playing the harp in front of the police barricades.
- Climate protesters are gathering in front of the open cast coal mine.
- Climate activists line up in front trying to enter the recently evicted village of Lützerath.
- Front lines of both parties: Protesters vs. Police forces.
- Police forces with horses, in the background an activist broke trough sitting on an electricity box.
- A policemen is protecting the property of the fossil fuel energy giant RWE, a private Germany company.
- Police forces on a slope are trying to keep climate protesters in one place.
- Two climate activists are wearing glasses against teargas waiting for the signal to break through the police lines.
- A protesters was teared down by the police and is lying in front of the police forces.
- A climate protester blows the horn for the march of the crowds.
- A policeman is observing the crowd.
- Police forces are backing down, mud is thrown towards them.
- Climate protesters are rushing towards the slope to conquer new spaces in the run for Lützerath.
- A group of musicians is accompanying the demonstration.
- Flags and banners of “The Left” Party of Germany as well as the 1.5 degree goal of the Paris agreement are raised.
The village of Lützerath in North Rhine-Westphalia is about to be demolished for lignite mining. With the Garzweiler open-cast mine being Europe’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, climate activists occupied Lützerath to prevent an eviction of the place and further dredging. While the energy company RWE claims to need additional coal resources to compensate for the energy deficit caused by Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, civil society, protesters, and activist fight to defend the 1.5°C frontier agreed upon in the Paris Agreement.
Photo and text by Dennis Schüpf