July 03, 2022

Inside Europe's dirty coal renaissance

topic:	Energy
located:	Russia, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Greece, Austria, Netherlands
editor:	Abby Klinkenberg

As Russia tightens its natural gas exports and escalates the European energy crisis, EU countries are turning to once-maligned coal to “keep the lights on.” In response to the war in Ukraine, the EU recently unleashed its sixth round of sanctions that included a partial ban on Russian crude oil and a total ban on Russian coal to begin in mid-August. Predictably, Russia hit back by cutting Nord Stream 1’s gas flow for purportedly “technical” reasons. The upshot is an anxious Europe filling the void by initiating a coal renaissance - we can only hope that it will be short.

As the EU bloc strives to ensure its citizens keep cool amidst record-breaking heatwaves and ensure that the coming winter will not be punctuated by power shortages, countries that have opted to restart coal power stations and compromise their GHG reduction targets. Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Poland have committed to extending the lives of their coal-fired power stations. Germany’s decision to move forward with a coal-fueled 2022 energy mix has particularly ramifications as a de facto leader of the EU bloc. The general manager of sustainable technology supplier Wärtsilä Energy said that “by relying on coal, Germany will not only prolong its own path to net zero, but it will also send an implicit message that other countries can do the same.” Despite cautious optimism that the energy crisis would bolster the green agenda, the EU is backsliding on its climate commitments.

Given this wider-European pivot, countries like the Czech Republic and Greece have opted to double down on mining operations, facilitating the EU’s backsliding towards coal and lignite. On 30 June, Prague opted to reverse its plans to end black coal mining in its northeastern region, extending its state-owned OKD mining company’s operations there through at least 2023, perhaps through 2025. In Greece, lignite production will increase by 50 percent through 2024 as plans to shut down more of the country’s coal-fired power plants have been indefinitely suspended. These short-term plans will have long-term consequences, both in terms of irrevocable emissions and slowed momentum for green alternatives.

While Czech and Greek coal mining operations spike on the continent, countries in the Global South are facing pressure to increase their coal production as part of the EU’s “knee-jerk measures to secure fossil fuels from non-Russian sources.” Even prior to the invasion of Ukraine, Colombia more than doubled its thermal coal exports to northwest Europe as compared to the same period in 2021. Colombia exported 1.1 million tonnes of coal to Europe through the first six weeks of the year, up from 0.55 million tonnes last year.

Colombia is not the only country fielding skyrocketing demand for coal from European countries. South Africa has also found itself responding to unprecedented European demand: through February, the EU accounted for approximately 15 percent of the Richards Bay Coal Terminal exports as compared to 4 percent in 2021.

To complicate matters further - and reiterate the capriciousness of the European bloc - during last year’s COP26, wealthy nations committed themselves to providing $8.5 billion in climate financing specifically intended to support South Africa’s coal exit. Now Europe is throwing money to support the further extraction of its coal resources.

Not only is Europe’s increasing demand putting pressure on carbon-intensive resource extraction in the Global South, in some cases it is even outstripping supply. Recent reports have indicated that Indonesia - faced with increasing pressure from Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany - may not be able to meet European demand. Germany alone has been said to have asked Jakarta for 150 million tonnes of coal – 24 percent of last year’s total Indonesian coal output.

These trade trends recall colonial extraction of natural resources from the Global South to the extent that convincing arguments have emerged regarding European engagement in “carbon colonialism.” While putting pressure on non-European economies to continue and even bolster their extraction patterns - emphasising the supply side of the equation - the EU has abandoned all hopes of standing firm in its coal exit without exhausting all domestic political options in terms of demand.

As Geneviève Pons of the sustainability-focused Jacques Delors Institute think tank has lamented, “We are allowing ourselves to [reopen power stations that are twice as polluting as gas power stations] rather than pleading for a reduction in consumption and pleading in a really very active way, i.e. by carrying out public campaigns as we did in the past.” Coal is not the way forward. It seems that we will find this out the hard way.

Photo by Filip Urban

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