• Environmental activist Greta Thunberg was temporarily detained in German.
• She has called the mine’s expansion a betrayal of both the present and the next generation.
• The protest has underlined rising tensions over Berlin’s climate policy.

After being temporarily jailed in Germany during a demonstration against the construction of a coal mine, environmental activist Greta Thunberg quickly resumed her advocacy on Wednesday, writing that defending the environment was not a crime.

“Yesterday I was part of a group that peacefully protested the expansion of a coal mine in Germany. We were kettled by police and then detained but were let go later that evening,” tweeted Thunberg, whose whereabouts are unclear.

“Climate protection is not a crime.”

She was detained alongside other activists protesting the destruction of the Luetzerath community to make room for RWE’s (RWEG.DE) opencast coal mine expansion.

Thunberg was brought back toward police vans while being carried away by three police officers and held by one arm at a location distant from the edge of the mine. Later on in the evening, she was let go.

She has called the mine’s expansion a betrayal of both the present and the next generation and charged Germany with being one of the world’s largest polluters.

With environmentalists claiming that climate goals are being abandoned with a return to dirtier fuels during an energy crisis brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the protest has underlined rising tensions over Berlin’s climate policy.

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