POTSDAM (dpa-AFX) - Potsdam climate researcher Stefan Rahmstorf believes the planned eviction of the village of Lützerath on the edge of the Rhenish open-cast lignite mine occupied by climate activists was a mistake. "Politicians should think carefully about how a massive police operation for coal and against climate activists will be judged in retrospect in 4 or 5 years, when the climate damage has become even more massive and obvious," the head of Earth System Analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) wrote on Twitter on Sunday. "It's not too late to avoid a bad mistake and call off the evacuation!"

Energy company RWE wants to demolish the village, which belongs to Erkelenz, in order to mine the coal underneath. Climate activists have occupied the abandoned settlement and want to resist the announced eviction./vr/DP/nas