Thousands expected at climate rally in western Germany

BERLIN – Students from more than a dozen European countries are expected to join a demonstration Friday urging governments to take bolder action against climate change.

Organizers say the protest in the western German city of Aachen is expected to draw 20,000 participants. It comes a day after European Union leaders failed to agree a plan to make the bloc’s economy carbon neutral by 2050.

Several large European countries — including Britain, France and Germany — have backed the target, but coal-reliant countries in the east, such as Poland, are opposed.

Friday’s protest takes place near the site of one of Germany’s biggest lignite coal mines. The mine has become a focus of environmental protests in recent years because its operator, utility company RWE, threatened to chop down a nearby forest.