A fight over the last sliver of a 12,000-year-old forest is polarizing German politics. RWE AG, one of Europe’s largest power generators, has petitioned to expand its open-pit Hambach coal mine ...

Steffen says the coal beneath the forest is critical for ensuring ... lignite will remain in the ground after mining operations cease. “I’ve known Hambach for decades, before the mine.

The community in Hambach forest was made of about 60 elaborate ... for action "Ende Gelände" managed to get into the coal mine. Police officers and private security block their way to a digger.

Every year since 1978, the mine has been allowed to fell a section of forest to access the lignite, or “brown coal,” beneath. As a result, the Hambach woodland has now shrunk to less than 10% ...

RWE runs an open-pit coal mine near the 12,000-year-old Hambach Forest in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Environmental activists had occupied tree houses there for years in an ...

RWE wants to clear the forest to mine lignite ... the state where the forest is located – are met by coal from the Hambach mine, which is the largest opencast mine in Germany.

Each year, the mine produces around 40 million ... for the German government to end its use of coal. The land encompassing the Hambach forest is legally owned by the RWE group, so theoretically ...

While this is a huge win for those who have been working to protect the forest, the fight is far from over, and since 2012, a number of activists have been occupying the Hambach, determined to save it ...

Jessica Bateman Environmental activists are fighting to save parts of the nearby Hambach forest from coal mine expansion (Credit: Jessica Bateman) Back in Old Manheim, Marco and Claudia Jakobs ...

Panel members from three environmental groups, an organization promoting renewable energy and a residents’ association visited the Hambach forest Monday, where anti-coal activists have clashed ...

Hambach forest has become a focus of environmental protests against the expansion of a vast mine that supplies much of the coal used in nearby power plants.