11 European coal-dependent countries in 2030
The 11 EU countries that will continue to depend on coal in 2030:
- The Paris agreement on climate change, signed in 2015, states that in 2030 no country should depend on coal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
- An NGO and think-tank study shows that, out of the 21 EU Member States still using coal to generate electricity, 10 is committed to eliminating it completely before 2030.
- To achieve this, the EU has 26,000 million euro in funding to modernize the energy market that countries could give up on coal.
To limit global warming to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius, as stipulated in the Paris Agreement reached by countries around the world in December 2015, it is imperative that states no longer use coal.
However, many countries in the European Union (EU) have not yet intended to leave coal, the combustion of which generates high CO2 emissions. According to the Climate Action Network and the British think tank Sandbag, 11 EU countries are in this situation, Euractiv reports.
Only 8 EU countries have specifically planned to remove coal from its energy mix, according to the European information website, based on the analysis of the 28 draft national energy and climate plans submitted by the Member States to the European Commission.
11 European coal-dependent countries in 2030
These are France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, Portugal, Denmark and Austria. Two other countries, Sweden and the United Kingdom, promised to leave coal, but would not grant a deadline.
In 2030, it is expected that capacities related to this type of fossil fuel are mainly concentrated in 6 states, including Poland and Germany, with a total capacity of 60 gigawatts (GW) in the EU, 58% less than the current level 143 GW.
If Germany continues to use the amount of coal will be the country that will have to reduce its capacity (-61%), 44.4 GW to 17 GW. On the contrary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Slovenia do not foresee any change for 2030.
This situation has been denounced by NGOs and climate advocates. "Many Member States have no plans to leave coal already benefiting from several European programs to support the transition of energy and require more funding," say the authors of Euractiv's review. Poland would push additional funds because the country plans to cut its capacity by only 15% by 2030.
Coal-dependent states could receive EUR 26,000 million from the Energy Market Modernization Fund between 2021 and 2030, in addition to billions of European regional funds.
These are the 11 countries of the European Union will continue to rely on coal in 2030, with a capacity expected to have power plants at that time.
Spain: between 0 and 1.2 GW
# 10 - Hungary: 0.2 GW
# 9 - Croatia: 0.2 GW
# 8 - Slovakia: 0.6 GW
# 7- Slovenia: 1 GW
# 6- Greece: 2.7 GW
# 5 - Romania: 3.2 GW
# 4 - Bulgaria: 4.7 GW
# 3 Czech Republic: 7.2 GW
# 2- Germany: 17 GW
# 1- Poland: 22.9 GW