German villages bulldozed to make space for coal mine

Europe’s biggest economy, Germany, has promised to phase out coal by 2038 in order to meet climate change commitments. Yet it is expanding one of its biggest open cast mines, which is 48 square kilometres in size.

The expansion will demolish five villages in the process, but the coal company responsible says it is not destroying, merely re-settling.

But many local residents say their lives are about to be ruined and are refusing to move.