Thousands of people have joined climate protests in the western German village of Hochneukirch near one of the country’s biggest coal mines.
Saturday’s rally comes two days after European Union leaders failed to agree on a plan to make the bloc’s economy carbon neutral by 2050.
Following months of protests by students and a sharp rise in the polls for Germany’s Green party, Chancellor Angela Merkel recently threw her weight behind the idea of making the entire German economy climate neutral by 2050 — meaning no more man-made greenhouse gases would be added to the atmosphere.