Police disperse hundreds of activists who blocked access to a coal-fired power plant in Germany

This Saturday, German police dispersed about a hundred environmentalists who had blocked access to a coal-fired power plant in Scholven (west of the country) to protest polluting emissions and the effects of mining in Colombia.

Police in a city near Gelsenkirchen have “put an end” to the blockades and are ready to take additional measures to ensure safety in the area, authorities said on social media, EFE reported.

The closure of coal supply routes and access roads to the plant of energy company Uniper began around 5:30 am (4:30 am in Lisbon) and lasted for about seven hours.

With this action, the Ende Gelände collective, known for its mass protests and civil disobedience against projects that have an impact on the environment, intended to condemn the impact of coal consumption on the environment and indigenous communities.

In its statement, the environmental group highlighted the impact of coal mining on communities such as the Wayuu and Yupca peoples of Colombia, highlighting that in the Latin American country, 60,000 people have been forced from their homes due to the activity and 2,600 have been killed.

In response to the energy crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the German government in 2022 reactivated a network of 14 coal-fired thermal power plants that had been deactivated and were about to close, including Scholven.

As “Ende Gelände” reports on its social networks, the coal that is burned at the Sholven plant is mined at the El Cerrejon mine in the Colombian region of La Guajira.

“German fossil capital is full of (neo)colonial violence,” the group said on its official account on the X network (formerly Twitter).

Germany has committed to phase out coal by 2038 and the Scholven power plant is planned to run on gas, but Ende Gelende is also phasing out this energy source due to its environmental implications.