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Press release, 22 June 2019, 9.40 am

Activists have cut off Germany’s largest coal power station from coal supply. Several hundreds of activists of the anti-coal alliance Ende Gelände have been blocking the coal rail tracks leading to power station Neurath, in Rhineland, for more than 15 hours. The activists have spent the night on the tracks.

Yesterday, 4,000 activists had started from a protest camp in Viersen to block coal mining operations in Rhineland, Europe’s largest source of carbon dioxide emissions. Another 2,000 activists have departed from the camp this morning. Yesterday 40,000 students from Fridays for Future protested in Aachen, only 50 km distance from the open coal mine. For today Fridays for Future and environmental NGOs have announced large protests directly next to the mine.

“This year, the climate justice movement is hitting a new peak. We are more determined, more diverse and more united than ever before. The climate crisis is already a reality, especially for people in the global South. We are bringing the age of fossil fuels to an end today,” states Nike Malhaus, spokeswoman of Ende Gelände.

The German government is planning to phase-out coal power by 2038 although this implies missing Germany’s 2020 climate targets and is not compatible with the 1.5°C limit. The anti-coal alliance Ende Gelände demands the immediate exit from coal power and a fundamental system change.

“This is not only about coal power. This is about changing a destructive system that is based onthe quest for infinite economic growth and exploitation. We are fighting for a future in which people count more than profits,” says Sina Reisch, spokeswoman of Ende Gelände.

presse@ende-gelaende.org