Energy Transition in Europe | www.energy-cities.eu

It is the first time Europe’s biggest economy, which gets 35% of its power from coal, has outlined a timeline to phase out the polluting fuel.

A commission drawn from industry, civil society, green groups and government published its final report after more than six months of deliberations and a last 21-hour marathon negotiating session.

In mid-2018, IDDRI and its partners in the Coal Transitions Project argued that the global effort to phase out coal consumption was speeding up and that this would intensify in the coming years. Only 6 months later, this prediction is looking pretty good. However, a lot of necessary work is still to be done, both to align with the ambition of the Paris Agreement and to ensure a just transition for affected workers and citizens.

Romania is continuing to prop up its ailing coal sector, blatantly ignoring EU state aid rules, even as the country claims to be defending EU values while holding the rotating presidency of the bloc, writes Alexandru Mustață.

The European Parliament’s committee on regional development has voted on Cohesion policy regulation, and there is the clear intention of making Cohesion much greener from 2020. For the first time, there is also to be a ban on providing support for fossil fuels. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Coal-fired power plants all over Europe will be forced to cut their toxic pollution after an industry attempt to annul new EU air quality protections was rejected by the Court of Justice of the EU.
The case, which was filed by European coal lobby group Euracoal and backed by the German brown coal industry, was thrown out by judges in Luxembourg.

On 21. December 2018 the mining of hard coal officially comes to an end in Germany. The closing of the last mine in the Ruhr region marks the end of 200 years of mining the fossil fuel that made Germany’s industrialisation possible. The reason for shutting the last hard coal mines is purely economic and was already taken in 2007. But the country may soon have an end-date for lignite (brown coal) mining and coal-fired power generation, too. A “coal commission” is at work to finalise plans for a German coal power phase-out as an important step towards a climate-neutral economy.

On the side lines of COP24, European Interest interviewed Kathrin Gutmann, an expert in climate and energy policy as well as advocacy. In her role as coordinator of NGO efforts to phase out coal with the Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, Gutmann is leading the development of the Europe Beyond Coal Campaign.

She said that under the CAN Europe, limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius the EU would need to be carbon neutral by 2040 – much earlier than what the Commission has proposed. The important thing now for the EU is to substantially increase its climate ambition for 2030 and for the EU countries to put measures in place to reach it.

Three years after COP21, the most important United Nations climate conference since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 opened on Sunday 2 December in Katowice. Poland, which is hosting a COP for the third time (after Poznan in 2008 and Warsaw in 2013), chose the capital of Silesia, a region whose economy was traditionally based on the coal and steel industry, in order to highlight the recent, radical redevelopment of this industrial centre towards innovation and culture, and to present Katowice as a model for the “green” transition. This choice also enables Poland to illustrate its vision of a transition towards a resilient, low carbon world, which needs to take better account of social aspects by ensuring that humans remain central to the transition. In this blog, IDDRI examines the political and operational challenges of this vision.

Poland is hosting lobbying for coal and fossil fuels of a scale that has rarely been seen during an annual UN conference on climate (COP). The EU is turning a blind eye to this new facet of its ‘enfant terrible.’ EURACTIV France reports.

Spain will close the last of its nuclear reactors and coal power plants before 2030, according to State Secretary for Energy José Dominguez, who made the announcement shortly after Madrid pledged to work towards a completely renewable electricity system.

Local opposition won a legal ruling against a major project on the Black Sea coast – the latest challenge to Turkey’s plans to expand coal use

Germany needs to phase out coal-fired power by 2030 in order to maximise the economic and social benefits of the zero-carbon transition, and deliver its commitment as part of the Paris Agreement, writes Nigel Topping.

Cooperation and social justice are at the heart of plans by the historic university city of Leuven, Belgium to become carbon neutral, as is the radical idea of giving owners no choice but to energy-renovate their homes

Coal use declines in Europe and the United States, but still increases in parts of Asia

La région allemande de la Ruhr va fermer vendredi sa dernière houillère en présence notamment du président allemand et du président de la Commission européenne. De nombreux hommages sont prévus pour dire adieu à cette activité qui a employé jusqu'à 600.000 mineurs.

En plongeant une dernière fois dans leur houillère de Bottrop, vendredi, les "gueules noires" de la Ruhr tourneront une page majeure de l'histoire allemande, faite de solidarité ouvrière et de cathédrales industrielles désormais obsolètes.

“Talking about a coal phaseout is difficult here, because the people who would be affected still perceive mining as some form of security. It is hard for them understand that this guarantee will be gone one day,” said Katarína Macháčková, the mayor of Prievidza.

Coal still represents 28% of global energy consumption. It is clear that meeting countries’ commitments under the Paris Agreement requires already significant reductions in coal consumptions. In many coal dependent countries, this raises significant political, social and economic issues.

‘Sky-rocketing’ EU carbon prices could mean Hungary is the first country in eastern Europe to set an exit date for the most polluting fossil fuel
Hungary is eyeing an end to coal-fired power generation by 2030, in a move that could shake the EU region most staunchly opposed to tougher climate change measures.

Climate action groups on Monday applauded the government of Wales for demonstrating that it is taking seriously the existential and planetary threat posed by fossil fuels by announcing that the country would end its extraction of coal.

EU economy and finance ministers on Tuesday (6 November) stressed the need to scale up public and private money for climate change and urged multilateral development banks to end funding for coal.