♪ eric campbell: germany is letting go of coal. europe's biggest economy has closed its black coal mines without sacking a single worker. now it's phasing out the brown coal it burns for electricity. but climate activists say it's still not enough. we find out why a country built on coal believes coal's days are numbered. and we join a raid with young activists fighting to stop

coal now. [crowd shouting] eric: i'm in germany's industrial heartland, a region of factories, smokestacks, and shafts. eric: so this is just for the visitors now? uwe seeger: just for the visitors. eric: and like thousands of men before me, i'm going down a coal mine. ♪ this is stepping into the bowels of modern german history. uwe: 1875, the shafts were built, and in the second world war they built the first tunnels in this.

eric: okay. eric: coal from the ruhr valley, near the dutch border, helped build the steel that armed the third reich. ♪ eric: when germany lost the war and was split into a capitalist west and the soviet-run east, this coal helped remake west germany into an economic powerhouse. ♪ uwe: my grandpa did it like this: put it in the coal. [machine firing] coal, yeah, yeah, and we use it like this to destroy big stones. and this is just a short trip to the next tunnel.

eric: i see why we need the helmets. eric: uwe seeger was born into this world, and thought he'd die in it. uwe: my grandfather was a miner, my father was a miner, my son was a miner for six years, but that's at an end because we don't have coal mining in germany. eric: you don't have black coal mines anymore. how do you feel about that? uwe: oh, it's very terrible. i'm so--i'm traurig. eric: yes, very sad. uwe: yeah, very sad. eric: this is no longer a working mine. uwe and some fellow ex-miners run it as a tourist attraction to show visitors how life used to be. uwe: so, sit down. let's have a drive. eric: it's not what i expected.

eric: in 2018, germany closed its last black coal mines, and a ruhr tradition dating back centuries shuddered to a sudden end. ♪ eric: this is the corporate headquarters of the ruhr coal giant rag. its main job now is rehabilitating the closed mines. the foyer proudly displays one of the last black nuggets ever mined. christof beike is the company's last spokesman. eric: in coal terms, this is like a piece of the berlin wall. christof beike: yes, this is part of the berlin wall for us, the last coal. and we take care of this part. and nobody's allowed to take a piece of it, yeah? it's like a baby.

eric: germany's transition from coal started in 2007, when the coal corporations sat down with unions and politicians and agreed to close down all the black coal mines by 2018. the deal was that no workers would be sacked. they'd all be given early retirement or found jobs in other industries. it was an heroic goal, and back then, it had nothing to do with climate change: it was all about money. ♪ eric: by the 1970s, it was cheaper to import coal than to dig it up from the ruhr's deep underground mines. the industry was surviving on government subsidies. christof: politicians decided in 2007 to pay not any longer subsidies for the coal production. and we decided to close, with a politician, this company.

and they ask us how much time you need to do that without any problems. eric: so you closed the black coal industry without firing any workers? christof: yes, for this, you need, i think, some time and money. but we have had both. [singing in german] ♪ eric: many of those workers still get together in the ruhr coal choir, but their days underground are over. older miners were given early retirement, younger ones were

helped to find new jobs. in this choir, that ranges from a research scientist to a budding trade union delegate. christian, who's 31, is looking forward to his new life representing workers. christian: [speaking in german] eric: [speaking in german] christian: [speaking in german] eric: but elsewhere in the country, mining continues, because germany is still europe's biggest producer of brown coal. i'm driving from the ruhr valley to the old east germany. the region of lusatia, on the polish border, has huge reserves

of this low-grade, high-polluting fuel. brown coal is a big employer here and they need the jobs. after communism collapsed in 1989 and germany reunited, towns like spremberg did it tough, as the mayor christine herntier explains. christine herntier: [speaking in german] eric: brown coal is profitable because it isn't deep underground. it's dug up near the surface, taken to nearby power plants,

and burned to boil water to make electricity. but it's even dirtier than black coal. the problem isn't the steam you see pouring out of cooling towers, it's the carbon emissions you can't see. ♪ in the cosmopolitan capital berlin, environmentalists have been demanding politicians shut it down. daniel hofinger: we need to end fossil fuels right now, we don't have any time to waste anymore, we can't wait another 18 years, so we're taking direct action to call for the immediate phase-out of coal in germany. ♪ eric: daniel hofinger is an activist with a new kind of protest movement called ende gelñnde, meaning "game over." ♪ daniel: ende gelñnde is a mass action of civil disobedience against coal and climate injustice in germany.

and what we're doing right now is to prepare ourselves for this action. ♪ eric: it doesn't march in the streets, it uses military-style tactics to occupy coal areas, fielding thousands of disciplined activists in strategic formations to evade police and shut infrastructure down. the movement has put intense pressure on a government already struggling to cut emissions since the paris climate change agreement of 2015. ♪ eric: germany can't hope to meet its paris targets unless it closes all this. so a commission representing politicians, corporations, unions, and local government has just sounded the death knell for brown coal. but crucially, in what's called the coal compromise, they're going to be given nearly two decades to adjust.

the plan is that by 2038 at the latest, the last brown coal mines and all the coal-fired power plants will be gone for good. eric: you might think people in lusatia would be horrified. christine: [speaking in german] eric: but mayor herntier was one of the members of the coal commission that thrashed out the compromise. christine: [speaking in german] eric: spremberg's mayor insists it's much better than waiting for coal's inevitable long-term decline.

the government has agreed to kick in 40 billion euros to kickstart new industries in the brown coal regions. christine: [speaking in german] eric: the region is already seeing the fruits of germany's embrace of renewable energy. wind turbines and solar farms are sprouting up next to power plants. germany still relies on domestic and imported coal for about a third of its electricity, but around 40% comes from renewable energy. the aim is to make that 65% by the end of the decade.

christine: [speaking in german] eric: they're even hoping to turn the old coal fields into an eco-tourism destination, as disused mine pits are rehabilitated into artificial lakes. the 2038 deadline should give the region plenty of time to adapt. but many activists insist the world can't wait. ♪ daniel: we have to phase out coal in germany right now. if we don't do that, it's going to be quite literally the end of the world as we know it. the ipcc tells us that if we continue burning coal, we're running into catastrophic climate change. ♪ eric: as the transition details are being worked out, ende

gelñnde announces its next mass occupation will be in lusatia. ♪ eric: the announcement doesn't go down well with most locals. frank seefeld: hello, welcome to my castle! hello! eric: [laughing] hello, herr seefeld! frank: herzlich willkommen! eric: oh, happy to be here. eric: frank seefeld is a security guard at the coal plants. he's as passionate about lusatia as he is about hunting. eric: [speaking in german] frank: [speaking in german] eric: as with many lusatians, he had to find a new way after

communism ended and state subsidies dried up. as well as working security for energy companies, he runs a small business selling preserved meats from his kills. eric: [speaking in german] frank: [speaking in german] eric: [speaking in german] frank: [speaking in german] eric: [speaking in german] frank: [speaking in german] eric: [speaking in german] eric: frank seefeld believes the east was hard done by after reunification. frank: [speaking in german] eric: people learned to rely on each other--and they don't like

being pressured by outsiders. eric: [speaking in german] frank: [speaking in german] eric: [speaking in german] frank: [speaking in german]

eric: two days before the threatened protest, lusatians are staging a counter-protest. they've set up a vigil at a power plant that's slated to close early in 2028. banners proclaim: "we live from coal, not green fairy tales." each worker ending their shift throws a lump of coal in the fire as an act of solidarity. man: [speaking in german] eric: in the main lusatian town of cottbus, there's a growing police presence, and they're not just keeping an eye out for

ende gelñnde. eric: well, it's the day before the big protest and by coincidence, across germany, school students are going on strike for climate change, though in this coal town it's a little more difficult. right now, the millennials are almost outnumbered by police. eric: in many other cities, tens of thousands of students are marching. the organizer here, konstantin gorodetsky, has kept his expectations lower. eric: so, konstantin, how many people do you think are marching today? konstantin gorodetsky: i have counted about 250, maybe 300. eric: yeah, that's--it's good, but it's a lot less than other german cities. konstantin: yes. eric: is it difficult to do a protest like this in this coal town? konstantin: yes, it is. we already had demonstrations against us, which is uncommon in every other german city, i think.

eric: yeah, so, do you feel a bit divided, being from a coal community but protesting against coal? konstantin: i am not, because we all know that we have to end coal. the question is how fast we have to do it, and the answer is in my opinion that we have to stop it as fast as possible. [protesters chanting in german] man: [speaking in german] eric: [speaking in german] man: [speaking in german] eric: [speaking in german] man: [speaking in german] konstantin and protesters: [singing in german]

eric: there is a generational divide here. the kids don't remember communism, and they don't see a future in an industry that's heating the planet. for now, they're content to make their point in peaceful street marches. [protesters chanting in german] man: [speaking in german] eric: that night, coal mining families gather at a power plant to show their support for the coal compromise. giant videos praise the industry and accuse ende gelñnde of intimidation.

male announcer: [speaking in german] christine: [speaking in german] eric: christine herntier, the mayor of spremberg, tells them they won't be pressured to stop coal sooner. christine: [speaking in german] eric: from 4 a.m., ende gelñnde's activists start assembling at berlin central station, ready to board a train to lusatia. [singing in german]

eric: it doesn't feel like a gathering of football hooligans. they insist it's only the police who use violence, but they've lost faith in peaceful marching. daniel: a little bit anxious because, of course, doing these blockades of civil disobedience is a different form of protest, because we've seen that marching doesn't, you know, bring the change that we need. so that's the form of action that we're going to take. and yeah--but we are going to be, like, thousands of people so i'm really looking forward today. eric: none of them know their assigned target yet. coordinators will use an encrypted app to message them to make it harder for police to stop them. an hour into the journey, they start putting on red uniforms. this is just one of six groups heading for the lusatian

coal fields. daniel: so in order to be more flexible and more effective with our blockades in the train, we are splitting up into different action groups called "fingers." they have different colors, we are the red finger. and we are about, i think, a thousand people maybe perhaps here on this train now. i don't have the exact number though yet. and we are about 30 minutes away from the station coal fields, so yeah, we are just about, yeah, ready to start. eric: one of the reasons for the uniforms is to make it harder for police to identify them. many ask us not to film their faces and start scratching out their fingerprints. woman: we want to prevent that the state or the police or anybody else gets our ids. eric: arriving at the station, they still haven't been told their destination, but at a given signal they split in two. [activists chanting in german]

eric: one group rushes down the road to draw the main police force away, while daniel's group cuts into the forest. [activists chanting in german] eric: police are waiting at the forest edge, but a flurry of smoke flares lets the crowd rush through. [police sirens] eric: suddenly, we're at the edge of a giant coal mine, and there's not enough police to stop the advance. frustrated, some resort to pepper spray and batons. man: the police beat the s-- out of me.

[singing in german] eric: well, it's just past dawn, but the first action has been successful. they've only occupied the lip of the mine, but the entire mine has now closed down. and elsewhere in the region, there are five other fingers targeting other mines, power stations, and railway crossings. it's going to be a long day. eric: for the next ten hours, they bring lusatia's coal industry to a standstill. it's a symbolic act, coal extraction and burning soon resumes. but the message is as much for the government as the corporations: coal is going to end, so end it now.

daniel: the german government wants to support the coal industry, but there's a huge social movement in the way of that, and what we've seen in germany is that the change for climate justice didn't come from the government. it was fought for and won by a strong social movement, and we are part of that movement. eric: the government is under intense pressure to shorten the transition. the green party is demanding a maximum of ten years. but germany is still light years ahead of countries planning to expand coal production. here, it's not a question of if coal goes, only when. ♪

eric campbell: it's a fight to take down the world's biggest strong man. maria pevchikh: the ultimate victory from us would be russia without vladimir putin. eric campbell: and it's led by the man who claims putin tried to kill him. alexei navalny has flown back to a prison cell and branded president putin the world's biggest thief. can navalny defeat putin? can he even survive? leonid volkov: he is in custody of the very people who tried to poison and kill him just less than six months ago. arkady ostrovsky: here is a guy of extraordinary courage. it's an absolutely archetypal myth, a hero fighting a tyrant.