treason. Hypocrisy. The climate protectors in Germany are in tatters. The occupation of the hamlet of Lützerath by activists shows this very clearly. With the action, the participants fight against the planned exploitation of the lignite deposits there. Approval for the work was granted by the greens of all people: Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (53) and North Rhine-Westphalian Economics Minister Mona Neubaur (45) negotiated a deal with the energy company RWE last October. According to this statement, the coal reserves in Lützerath may be exploited in exchange for an early postponement of the phasing out of lignite mining from 2038 to 2030.
The federal government’s traffic light alliance is under pressure: the nuclear phase-out must be completed by April 15 this year. Then there is the energy crisis – because of the war in Ukraine, Russian gas is no longer flowing to Germany. How do you do all that at once? Lützerath offered a remedy. At the same time, the life of two lignite power stations has been extended to the end of March 2024, which should have been shut down at the end of the year. In the eyes of the federal government, Lützerath’s lignite reserves should help bridge an imminent power shortage.
250 kilos of lignite for party headquarters
This causes great indignation among the Greens, among many young politicians and climate activists. You feel betrayed. Lützerath even leads to a real test within the climate movement. This is reflected, among other things, in the fact that some climate defenders have already written off the Greens. Activists dumped 250 kilos of brown coal briquettes in front of the headquarters of the Green Party in Düsseldorf on Tuesday. «Put posters for climate protection in the election campaign. Make a pact with RWE after the elections!” read the banners. “We wanted to show the Greens that they are no longer the climate party, but the coal party,” said a spokesman for the activists.
Some Greens openly show solidarity with the Lützerath activists. This includes the co-federal chairman of the Green Youth, Timon Dzienus (26), who mingled with the people on Wednesday and posed on Twitter with his fist outstretched. The fact that the Greens made the deal with RWE possible sometimes led to bizarre situations. For example, the Greens MP Kathrin Henneberger (35) got into trouble during a TV interview in Lützerath. When the TV presenter asked her that the lignite mining had been made possible by a minister of Green, she did not dare to criticize the party leadership. Instead, she resorted to phrases: “So the root of the problem is that the energy transition has been overslept for decades.” Henneberger also tried to sweep under the carpet the clear split between the climate movement and the Greens: as a Greens member she is still welcome among climate activists, despite her party’s support for the coal agreement.
Stress test in Berlin
Activist Luisa Neubauer (26), leader of the German movement Fridays for Future and also a member of the Greens, is not afraid to criticize the party. “Some things are too good to be true,” she wrote on Instagram. “And this green story about the 2030 coal phase-out, which would be magically good for both RWE and the climate, is one such thing.” The main criticism of the Greens’ climate activists: In the deal with RWE, the amount of coal will not be limited despite the early retirement and thus not a single ton of CO₂ will be saved. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg (20) has now announced that she will participate in a protest against the evacuation of Lützerath, which is scheduled for Saturday.
For the Greens, however, there will soon be another endurance test. A re-election will take place in Berlin on 12 February, with the Green Party Bettina Jarasch (54) seeking to be elected as the governing mayor. The dispute over Lützerath comes at the worst possible time for them. “We will not hand out flyers for the elections over the weekend, but will stand next to the movement in Lützerath,” a spokeswoman for the Green Youth Berlin told the “Taz”. “That’s the priority now.” They want to arrive at the demonstration in Lützerath on Saturday with a maximum of eight buses.