COLOGNE (dpa-AFX) - A small group of climate activists has called for donations to buy land from the energy company RWE next to the demolished village of Lützerath in the Rhenish lignite mining area. Under the slogan "Coal for coal", they want to offer RWE 1.5 million euros for an area of 1.5 square kilometers to ensure that the underlying coal remains in the ground. The money is to be raised through crowdfunding.

The purchase proposal will also be presented at RWE's digital Annual General Meeting, climate activist Lilith Rein announced in Koln on Friday. An RWE spokesperson did not wish to comment on the offer when asked. According to the spokesperson, everything is known and said about the former Lützerath settlement, which was taken up by opencast mining around a year ago. When asked where RWE's interest in a sale should lie, Rein said that RWE had the declared goal of switching to renewable energies and that this would offer the Group a "very good way out" of the fossil fuel era.

At the launch of the plan, geologist and climate activist Nikolaus Froitzheim from the University of Bonn said that the past few months had been extremely hot months worldwide. "Climate researchers and meteorologists are stunned by this, but the public doesn't take much notice," the scientist criticized. Rein said that only a small circle of activists had organized the offer to RWE, but that they were supported by many civil society organizations and NGOs. The village of Lützerath was evacuated and mined last year following mass protests and a huge police operation./cd/DP/mis