Ukraine war: boost or setback for climate efforts?
About 1,000 miles away from Ukraine, Luetzerath is an indirect victim of the war as the town will soon make way for the expansion of a nearby coal mine
BERLIN (AP) — Luetzerath may be 1,000 miles from Ukraine, but it is an indirect victim of Russia’s invasion and some fear so is Earth’s climate.
The ancient hamlet in western Germany will soon be demolished along with a wind park to expand a nearby coal mine, despite protests from environmentalists who fear millions more tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide will be released into the atmosphere.
Their concerns were echoed recently by Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, who warned that “the horrors of the war in Ukraine should not put climate action on the back burner.”
“Doubling down on fossil fuels is not the answer,” he wrote on Twitter. "The only path to energy security, stable power prices and a livable planet lies in accelerating the renewable energy transition.”
