*Welzow, Germany* -- Today, activists ended their successful blockade at
energy company Vattenfall’s lignite power plant Schwarze Pumpe, Europe’s
tenth largest emitter of CO2 after 48 hours. 

The mass action *Ende Gelände* (‘here and no further’) shut
down operations at the lignite mine *Welzow-Süd* and its coal loading
station, and cut the power plant off from all coal supplies for 24 hours.
Vattenfall lowered the power plant’s capacity by 80 percent.

“The action this weekend exceeded all our expectations,” said Hannah
Eichberger of the anti-coal coalition Ende Gelände. More than 4,000 people
from 12 countries attended the Lusatia climate camp. More than 3,500 people
joined the actions of civil disobedience on Friday and Saturday,
demonstrating that they’re taking matters into their own hands now to end
coal.”

Ende Gelände is part of an international wave of actions called Break Free from fossil fuels.
Over the past two weeks, thousands of people resisted fossil fuel projects on six continents.
Yesterday, activists blocked the Brazil’s largest coal power plant, in
Vancouver, Canada, hundreds protested at a tar sands export terminal in
kayaks.