In January 2023, around 35,000 protesters participated to demonstrations against excavation by the mining company RWE in Lützerath, Germany. On January 14, 2022, police was reported to use excessive force against peaceful demonstrators during the eviction process. Several protesters, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, remained at the site staging a sit-in near the edge of the mine and on January 17, 2022, they were briefly detained by police to carry out identity checks. They were released shortly after. Thunberg had called the expansion of the mine a “betrayal of present and future generations” while addressing thousands of protesters who marched towards Lutzerath. A study by the German Institute for Economic Research has questioned the need for the costly expansion of the open-pit mine to ensure the country’s energy security, and scientists claim it will lead to high CO2 emissions. RWE said on its website that "[it] regrets that the planned demolition process can only take place under substantial police protection and that opponents of the opencast mine are calling for illegal disruptions and also criminal acts".