Poland under pressure to ‘walk the talk’ on coal phase-out

(EurActiv, 29 May 2019) Environmental activists are raising the pressure on Poland and other EU member states to clarify their coal phase-out plans, saying countries receiving EU energy transition funds cannot “have their cake and eat it”.

An analysis of the 28 draft National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) submitted by EU member states to the European Commission reveals some countries have no intention to eradicate coal.

Eleven EU countries have either no plans to quit coal or are planning only a very limited decrease in their installed capacity by 2030, according to the analysis by Climate Action Europe and Sandbag.

Only eight EU countries have clear plans to eliminate coal from their electricity mix while two have pledged to do it but without giving an explicit date, the two NGOs found.

This is insufficient to reach the objectives of the Paris Agreement, which says coal needs to be phased out as quickly as possible across the world in order to keep global warming below 2°C. For wealthy regions like Europe, this means eliminating coal from the energy mix by 2030 at the latest.

“Our analysis shows that the EU is currently set to miss this goal by a wide margin,” said CAN Europe and Sandbag, the two environmental groups which co-authored the study.

On current plans, the vast majority of the EU’s remaining coal power capacity in 2030 will be located in just 6 member states: Poland, Germany, Czechia, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece.

External link

EurActiv, 29 May 2019: Poland under pressure to ‘walk the talk’ on coal phase-out