Cottbus | Chóśebuz, 30 november 2019 . At 5 pm, the international climate justice movement “Ende Gelaende” (“Here A n d No Further”) successfully ends today’s day of action . Since the early morning, climate activists have been blocking coal mines and coal infrastructure in the Lusatian and Leipzig coal mining areas. They occupied the open-cast mines Jaenschwalde-Ost, Welzow-Sued and Vereinigtes Schleenhain as well as three coal railways. The activists are protesting against the government’s inadequate climate policy, demand an immediate coal phase-out and criticise the economic system as being powered by fossil fuels and orientated towards growth.

“We are satisfied with our successful action and happy that we were able to se nd such a strong signal for climate justice today. 4 , 000 climate activists have jointly blocked coal infrastructure,” says spokesperson Nike Mahlhaus, drawing a positive conclusion of the action. She comments: “If political leaders fail to protect the climate and our livelihoods, we will start to phase-out coal mining by ourselves.

“2019 was the year of the climate movement, but a lost year for climate justice. We must act now, because the climate crisis radically threatens our future. That’s why we’re reacting with radical protest today”, says Johnny Parks, spokesperson of Ende Gelaende.

An alliance of Fridays for Future and environmental associations such as BUND, Greenpeace Regio Ost and PowerShift demonstrated in solidarity with Ende Gelaende in front of the Jaenschwalde power plant. Coal-fired power still accounts for a large proportion of Germany’s CO2 emissions. Ende Gelaende is a protest alliance that has been organizing actions of civil disobedience in the coal mining areas of the Rhineland, Lusatia and Leipzig since 2015.