Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has joined protests to ‘save’ an abandoned village in Germany from being demolished for expanding a coal mine.

Lützerath village in Germany was entirely abandoned by its residents in 2017. This village is located beside an open-cast lignite coal mine, Garzweiler II, which already sprawls across 35 square kilometers.

The RWE company which manages this mine plans to expand it. This expansion plan has become the new reason to protest for these activists.

Though both German courts and the government have allowed the company’s expansion plans, climate activists have resolved to stop the demolition of deserted village Lützerath for expanding the coal mine.

While hundreds of activists built tree houses and even made tunnels under the village to temporarily live there, thousands of climate justice activists have come to the protest site demanding an end to coal mine expansion.

CNN reports that environmental activists see the German coalition government, in which Greens party are a part, allowing the coal mine expansion as a betrayal.

However some Greens party activists have called the expansion of coal mines as a necessary measure to relieve the energy crisis caused by the Russian war on Ukraine.

“It is not a renaissance of lignite or coal, but only a side-step – helping Germany to cope with the energy crisis,” RWE spokesperson Guido Steffen told CNN.