Court suspends lignite mine forest clearance

RWE Power has warned it could face losses of hundreds of millions of euro after a German court suspended the firm’s planned clearance of a forest later this month for opencast lignite mining.

The Higher Administrative Court for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Münster said on Friday that RWE must not begin clearing the ancient Hambacher Forest until a claim against the plan by environmental group BUND is heard.

Plans by RWE to begin clearing the last remains of the forest to expand mining of the highly polluting fuel have been met with protests for the last six years.