Germany's dirty coalmines become the focus for a new wave of direct action

Not far from the UN climate talks taking place in Bonn, activists frustrated with slow progress by governments are turning up the heat at the Hambach opencast mine, highlighting Germany's failure to live up to its green pledges

A giant black mark on Germany's environmental record is scarred on the land an hour's drive from the venue of this year's UN climate talks in Bonn.

Stretching 85 kilometres wide and 400 metres deep, the opencast coalmine near Hambach forest is the biggest hole in Europe and one of the biggest single sources of carbon on the continent.