Coal Industry Across Europe Coal Industry Across Europe
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7th edition Coal industry across Europe Coal industry across Europe Foreword On 1st December last year, the new Von der Leyen Commission took office with a clear ambition: to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. The European Green Deal, presented by the Commission just two weeks later, includes a comprehensive package of measures enabling European citizens and businesses to benefit from a sustainable green transition. This Deal represents the new growth strategy for Europe, aiming to reduce emissions while also creating jobs and boosting the economy. The energy sector is at its core. As vital elements of the Green Deal, in January 2020, the Commission presented the Just Transition Mechanism and the Green Deal Investment Plan. The Just Transition Mechanism will ensure that no country, region nor person will be left behind in the green transition, by providing tailored financial and practical support to help reskilling the most impacted employees and generating investments and new jobs in those areas most affected by the transition. For the transformation to be a success, large-scale investment is absolutely essential. The overall financial package of the Mechanism is worth at least €100 billion. As for the Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy Investment Plan, it will mobilise public investment and help unlock private funds through EU financial instruments, notably InvestEU, leading to a total of at least €1 trillion euros of investments in the European economy. The Commission is conscious of the economic significance To do so, the Commission already in 2017 launched the of coal to the economies of many regions in Europe. The “Platform for Coal Regions in Transition”, to support coal and coal sector still accounts for around one fifth of the total carbon-intensive regions in transition to be prepared for the electricity production in the EU, and provides jobs to around upcoming changes. This shift is an ongoing reality in Europe 230 000 people in mines and power plants across thirty-one and although the move to a low-carbon economy presents regions and eleven Member States. While for the time being many opportunities, the economic and social impacts in coal remains an important fuel in the European energy mix, many coal regions cannot be ignored. The transformation we need to acknowledge that change is already happening. ahead of us Europeans is unprecedented, and it will only In the context of climate change, the transition to cleaner work if it works for all. sources of energy and innovative technologies is taking place and accelerates as coal is replaced by more Co-operation and exchange of views with the coal industry sustainable and competitive alternatives. We as policy has been and will continue to be important for the European makers are committed to helping communities, which rely on Commission. It is in our common interest to secure that the the coal value chain during the progressive phasing out of clean energy transition is just, fair and informed by the views coal from our energy mix over the next decades. of those who are living through it. February 2020 Cover photo: RWE Niederaußem lignite-fired power plant and wind farm at Bergheim in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. © Stevotion | Dreamstime.com 2 7th edition Coal industry across Europe Contents 5 Introduction by Tomasz Rogala President of EURACOAL 7 Energy Summit Declaration 9 From Energy Union to a carbon-neutral Europe via a just transition 15 Added value from coal 17 International coal market and global energy trends Country profiles 23 Bulgaria 25 Czech Republic 29 Germany 35 Greece 37 Hungary 41 Poland 45 Romania 47 Serbia 49 Slovakia 53 Slovenia 57 Spain 59 Turkey 63 Ukraine 65 United Kingdom 69 Other EU Member States and Energy Community stakeholders 81 Photo credits 82 EU statistics 84 EURACOAL 85 Coal classification 86 Glossary 86 Data sources and references 87 Map of Coal in Europe 2018 European Association for Coal and Lignite 3 Coal industry across Europe important issue of international emissions trading. Although the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on the impacts of a 1.5°C global warming was not Introduction universally endorsed, that target looks now to be achievable in Europe. Those EU member states who depend heavily on coal, such as Poland, Czechia, Bulgaria, Germany and Greece, have all This publication, prepared by EURACOAL members, tells the submitted to the European Commission their draft national story of a vital fuel: where coal comes from, what it is used energy and climate plans, including assumptions on their for and the challenges it faces. Presenting facts and figures future energy mixes. Following the cessation of subsidised on the coal industry, it covers not only the European Union, hard coal mining in Germany and Spain at the end of 2018, but also countries that participate in the Energy Community. as required under EU law, a growing number of countries are now expected to largely exit from coal and lignite use: Since we drafted the last edition of Coal industry across France in 2021, the United Kingdom in 2025, Greece in 2028 Europe, the Paris Agreement of 2015 has been signed and and Germany in 2038. Other countries are likewise the European Commission has published its Clean energy considering how and when to exit. for all Europeans package of proposals which have now been enacted. The package delivers on the commitments For this reason, the Coal Regions in Transition Platform, a made by the European Union under the Paris Agreement. It welcome initiative of the European Commission, is gaining took months of negotiation before EU member states were momentum. Replacing coal with renewable energy sources able to agree to all the proposals, but the new laws will help or nuclear power will take time, but progress is being made. reduce greenhouse gas emissions with a transition away Replacing the advantages of coal – its abundance, its from fossil fuels towards clean energy. Central to the affordability and its availability – is also a challenge, but one package remains the EU emissions trading system which will that can be met with massive investment in renewable deliver the politically agreed reductions with certainty. energy sources and large-scale energy storage technologies. Towards the end of 2018, the European Commission The world is set to use around seven billion tonnes of coal presented its new strategic long-term vision for a prosperous, each year through to 2040. The success of the energy modern, competitive and climate-neutral economy by 2050. transition in the European Union will be important not only for Now, under the European Green Deal tabled in December the European citizens who must pay the cost of transition 2019, this vision is being turned into legislative proposals which, according to estimates by the European Commission, that will transform society. Europeans must decide how will run to an additional €175 billion to €290 billion per year committed they are to these ambitious proposals. Achieving from 2031 to 2050, but also for the citizens of the world who climate neutrality will not be an easy task as it goes far will watch this experiment with deep interest. If it works, they beyond what other regions of the world have offered, but the will want to follow. For the European regions with coal mines European coal industry is preparing itself for such change and coal power plants, it means finding at least €25 billion each and welcomes the promised structural investments in the year from 2021 to replace these assets and associated jobs. coal-mining regions. With the above in mind, EURACOAL members organised an To demonstrate the coal industry’s position as an important Energy Summit in October 2019, co-operating with the Polish stakeholder, the coal-mining region of Silesia was pleased to Ministry of Energy to formulate the expectations of the coal host in December 2018 the 24th UNFCCC Conference of the sector and the support needed to implement the energy Parties in Katowice (COP24). Although the leaders of the transition in a way that builds on the coal value chain. We ten economies responsible for two-thirds of global invite you to read the summit declaration and lend your greenhouse gas emissions were absent – China, the United support to a sustainable energy transition. States, India, Russia, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, Germany, Canada and Iran – the Katowice Rulebook was adopted. It Coal will be used for many decades to come. While the is a roadmap to implement the Paris Agreement and shows volumes used by EU member states will continue to decline, us that industrial decarbonisation is only one of the ways to meeting politically agreed emission-reduction targets, flexible tackle climate change; forestry and farming are also and reliable coal-fired power generation will undoubtedly important. Unfortunately, no agreement was reached in bring security to the energy transition and avoid an Katowice or at COP25 in Madrid in December 2019 on the overdependence on fossil gas. MEP Grzegorz Tobiszowski, former Secretary of State and Government Plenipotentiary for the restructuring of hard coal mining in Poland (left) and Mr. Tomasz Rogala, President of EURACOAL and Chairman of the Board, Polska Grupa Górnicza S.A. European Association for Coal and Lignite 5 DECLARATION CONCERNING THE CONDITIONS FOR A SUSTAINABLE ENERGY TRANSITION Energy transition is an industrial technology-driven transformation towards a low-emission economy employing diverse energy sources. This process should be carried out in compliance with social justice, taking into account rational economic decisions and the competitiveness of EU industry as well as respecting the natural environment. I. A sustainable transition needs to address the climate challenge, including the Paris target, but it requires global solutions with adequate ambitions and valid contributions everywhere but particularly within the G20.