Press Invitation, October 11
Activists to shut down coal mine ahead of COP23 ++ Ende Gelände calls for mass disobedience in the face of Germany’s disastrous climate policy
Bonn, Germany. Climate activists will shut down an open-cast coal mine in a mass action of civil disobedience on November 3-5. Action Alliance „Ende Gelände“ demands an immediate coal phase-out to realize climate justice. They strongly criticize the German government for causing disastrous climate change through excessive lignite mining. The action will take place in the Rhineland Coalfields which are only 50 km away from Bonn, site of the 23rd UN-Climate Negotiations (COP23) under the presidency of Fiji from 6-17 November.
„Germany pretends to be climate model country, yet her industry is in fact gorging on coal“, comments Insa Vries, spokes person of Ende Gelände. „In the run-up to the UN-talks, we point to this sore spot: the moonscapes and smoking chimneys of the Rhineland Coalfields. All talk about mitigation is hypocrisy – unless you keep fossil fuels in the ground – now!“
Alongside the action, a group of Pacific Islanders calling themselves the ‘Pacific Climate Warriors’ will hold a traditional ceremony in solidarity with the action on November 5. Under the banner ‘we’re not drowning, we’re fighting’, the Pacific Climate Warriors demand an end to the age of fossil fuels to keep their islands above water.
„Our politicians are failing us, so we are going to shut down those dirty mines ourselves“, says Janna Aljets, press spokes of Ende Gelände. „We stand in solidarity with people in the Pacific – and all over the world – whose livelihoods are destroyed by the fossil industry.“
For Small Islands States in the Pacific keeping global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees is a matter of survival. The people of the Pacific already live with devastating impacts of climate change – from more intense extreme weather events and increased sea level rise to severe droughts.
The grassroots alliance Ende Gelände organized successful mass actions of civil disobedience before, such as in August, when thousands of activists blocked the supply tracks of Germany’s biggest coal power plant Neurath in the Rhineland coalfields. The mining operations in West Germany include three open-cast lignite mines and three power plants that belong to Europe’s most polluting. Together they emit 80 million tons of CO2 per year [2016]. Lignite (brown coal) is one of the most polluting fossil fuels. The utility giant RWE plans to continue lignite mining until 2045, and the German government has not set a date for lignite phase-out in other regions at all. 41 percent of Germany’s electricity is still generated from coal (23 % of the electricty mix comes from lignite, 18 % from hard-coal).
Information for editors, not for publication
Come and meet us in the Rhineland! Media representatives are welcome to accompany activists into the mine and report directly from the action. We will have both German and people from your country available for interviews. If you are interested, please get in touch with us as soon as possible.
If you are interested, please get in touch with us as soon as possible.
More information about meeting places and action briefings will follow soon.
Contact:
Phone: 0049-15216381294