AACHEN (dpa-AFX) - Climate activist Luisa Neubauer plans to come to Lützerath on Sunday (Jan. 8) and take part in a so-called "village walk" there. She is calling for people to do the same, she told the German Press Agency.

Energy company RWE wants to demolish Lützerath in the Rhineland to mine the coal underneath. Activists living in the abandoned hamlet have announced resistance to the move, but the black-and-green NRW state government wants police to clear the village in the middle of the month. It points out that in return, the coal phase-out has been brought forward by eight years to 2030.

Neubauer commented that the 2030 coal phase-out is a false promise. "It won't protect the climate, the only thing being protected here are the profits of RWE, the operator of Europe's largest source of CO2." RWE plans to use the coal under Lützerath to mine four times as much C02 as may still be burned to comply with the 1.5-degree limit, he said. "Coal must stay in the ground," Neubauer demanded.

"The future is renewable. That's why we are calling on people nationwide to go to Luetzerath on Jan. 8," Neubauer said. "Society is ready to stand up for a safe and sustainable world, and we will show that in Lützerath. At the village walk on Sunday and in the coming weeks."/cd/DP/mis