This is how Greta Thunberg was arrested for protesting in Germany 1:13
(CNN)
-- Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was released Tuesday night after spending several hours in detention following a protest over the expansion of a coal mine in the German town of Lützerath, police confirmed to CNN on Wednesday. .
”Thunberg was detained only briefly.
Once she established her identity, she was free to go," Max Wilmes, a spokesman for the police in the city of Aachen, told CNN.
“Because of her name recognition, the police sped up the identification process,” Wilmes said, adding that the activist waited for the other protesters to be released.
Thunberg quickly resumed her campaign on Wednesday, sharing a message on her Twitter account that read: "Environmental protection is not a crime."
“Yesterday I was part of a group that peacefully protested against the expansion of a coal mine in Germany,” the activist said, adding: “The police cornered us and then detained us, but let us go later that night.”
Thunberg was part of a large group of protesters who broke through a police barrier and invaded a coal pit that authorities had been unable to fully secure, police spokesman Christof Hüls told CNN on Tuesday.
This is the second time Thunberg has been detained at the scene, he said.
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was arrested during a protest in western Germany.
Since last Wednesday, the German police have managed to expel hundreds of activists from Lützerath.
Some have been on the site for more than two years, CNN previously reported, occupying homes that were vacated by former residents after the eviction, almost all in 2017, to make way for the lignite coal mine.
The German government reached an agreement with the energy company RWE, which owns the mine, in 2022, allowing it to expand into Lützerath in exchange for ending coal use by 2030, instead of 2038.
Once the eviction is complete, RWE plans to build a 1.5km perimeter fence around the town, sealing off its buildings, streets and sewers before they are demolished.
Thunberg tweeted last Friday that she was in Lützerath to protest against the expansion of the mine.
This Saturday, he joined thousands of people demonstrating against the demolition of the town.
Addressing the activists at the protest, Thunberg said: “The carbon is still in the ground.
And as long as the carbon is underground, this fight is not over."
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Hüls said Thunberg "surprisingly" had protested again this Sunday, when she was first detained, and then again on Tuesday.
The coal mine expansion is important to climate activists.
They argue that continuing to burn coal for power will increase globally warming emissions and that this will violate one of the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. .
Brown coal is the most polluting type of coal, which in turn is the most polluting fossil fuel.
Climate strike week 230. We are currently in Lützerath, a German village threatened to be demolished for an expansion of a coal mine.
People have been resisting for years.
Join us here at 12 or a local protest tomorrow to demand that #LützerathBleibt !#ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/hGrCK6ZQew
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) January 13, 2023
“We need to stop the current destruction of our planet and the sacrifice of ordinary people to benefit short-term economic growth and corporate greed,” Thunberg said.
Clashes between activists and police continued this month, with photos from the protests showing police using riot gear to clear out protesters.
More than 1,000 police officers participated in the eviction operation.
Most of the buildings in the village have already been emptied and replaced by bulldozers.
RWE and Germany's Green Party, a member of the country's ruling coalition, reject claims that the mine expansion will increase total emissions and that additional carbon emissions can be offset.
But several climate reports made clear the need to accelerate clean energy development and the transition away from fossil fuels.
Recent studies also suggest that Germany may not even need additional coal.
An August report by the international research platform Coal Transitions found that even if coal plants operate at very high capacity until the end of this decade, they already have more coal available than necessary from existing supplies.
Greta Thunberg