Ende Gelände 2016 was a large civil disobedience

protest A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of cooper ...

movement in Germany to

limit Limit or Limits may refer to: Arts and media * ''Limit'' (manga), a manga by Keiko Suenobu * ''Limit'' (film), a South Korean film * Limit (music), a way to characterize harmony * "Limit" (song), a 2016 single by Luna Sea * "Limits", a 2019 ...

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

through fossil fuel phase-out. –

environmental activist The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists advo ...

s from twelve countries blocked the Welzow-Süd

open-pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

and the coal-fired

Schwarze Pumpe power station Schwarze Pumpe power station (german: Kraftwerk Schwarze Pumpe translated: ''Black Pump Power Station'') is a modern lignite (brown coal)–fired power station in the "Schwarze Pumpe" (Black Pump) district in Spremberg, Germany consisting of 2& ...

, then owned by Vattenfall (

Spremberg Spremberg ( dsb, Grodk) is a municipality near the Saxon city of Hoyerswerda and is in the Spree-Neiße district of Brandenburg, Germany. First mentioned in 1301, the town alone has 14,028 inhabitants, and the municipality, including other villa ...

), from 13 to 15 May 2016.

Context

On 15 August 2015, in the first year of Ende Gelände, activists blocked the

Garzweiler surface mine The Tagebau Garzweiler is a surface mine (german: Tagebau) in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is operated by RWE and used for mining lignite. The mine currently has a size of 48 km² and got its name from the village of whi ...

owned by

RWE RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States. The company is Europe's most climate threatening Company, the world's number two in offsh ...

(Ende Gelände 2015). Ende Gelände formed in 2015 as a coalition of German environmental groups and "people from the anti-nuclear and anti-coal movements". The activists of the first Ende Gelände 2015 were hosted by the

climate camp The Camps for Climate Action are Political campaign, campaign gatherings (similar to peace camps) that take place to draw attention to, and act as a base for direct action against, major Global warming#Causes, carbon emitters, as well as to devel ...

" Rheinlandcamp". In 2016 the " Lausitzcamp" hosted the to activists and provided infrastructure and support. In German, ''Ende Gelände'' idiomatically means "Here and no further". Ende Gelände 2016 was part of an international wave of actions called "Break Free from Fossil Fuels". It was followed by

Ende Gelände 2017 Ende Gelände 2017 was a large civil disobedience protest movement in Germany to limit global warming through fossil fuel phase-out. - environmental activists from several countries blocked two German open-pit coal mines: * From 24 to 29 Aug ...

: in the

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

open-pit mines on 24 to 29 August 2017 as well as 3 to 5 November 2017 on (for the 2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference).

Description

During the 48 hours of mass action, the coal-fired

(described as "Europe's tenth largest emitter of ") was cut to 20 percent of its power for two days. The nearly shutting down of the power plant over the weekend of Ende Gelände was seen by activists as a great success. Vattenfall Europe's chairman of the board said: "It is an absolute new quality, that a power plant shall be forced to cease its work by violent pressure, which has direct consequences for the German electricity grid. This does not any more only affect Lusatia." The short-term goal of Ende Gelände was to stop the process of Vattenfall selling the mining area. The selling of Lusatia's coal mining industry was described by Ende Gelände as the biggest single investment in coal power in Europe. Ende Gelände intended to stop the selling process. Instead, Vattenfall should have, according to Ende Gelände, financed a social coal phase out and cover ecological follow up expenditures. The mining region was eventually, after renewed debates in the Swedish Parliament as a direct response to Ende Gelände, sold to EPH in October 2016. Vattenfall initially expected to sell for 2 to 3 billion Euro, but finally had to pay EPH 1.7 billion for EPH taking over all (especially ecological) liabilities in the region. Ende Gelände had the motto in 2016 "we are the investment risk". Organisers describes Ende Gelände 2016 as "the largest ever global civil disobedience against fossil fuels".

Gallery

File:Poster Ende Gelände.jpg, Poster File:Auszug eg lausitzcamp.jpg, Gathering File:Ende Gelaende Einzug Tagebau Tag 1.jpg, Activists in the open-pit coal mine File:Förderband bunt.jpg, Blocking a conveyor belt File:Im Kraftwerk schwarze Pumpe.jpg, Near the power plant File:Schienenblockade.jpg, Blocking railway lines leading to the coal mine File:EndeGelaende-SchwarzePumpe-2.png, The power plant was cut to 20% of its power for two days, preventing 16 kton emissions

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ende Gelande 2016 2016 in Germany 2016 in the environment 2016 protests Climate change in Germany Climate change policy Coal mining Coal in Germany Demonstrations Direct action Environmental protests in Germany Mining in Germany Occupations (protest) Spremberg Vattenfall Surface mining foo

Context

Description

Gallery

See also

References

External links