Protests in Germany against coal mine expansion: Has Russia Ukraine conflict forced Europe to use more coal?

Climate strike week 230. We are currently in Lützerath, a German village threatened to be demolished for an expansion of a coal mine. People have been resisting for years. Join us here at 12 or a local protest tomorrow to demand that #LützerathBleibt !#ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/hGrCK6ZQew

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) January 13, 2023

According to Associated Press, while environmentalists believe that the expansion of the mine would lead to huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, the German government has said it needs coal to ensure the country’s energy security, which has already been “squeezed by the cut in supply of Russian gas due to the war in Ukraine.”

Ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, not just Germany, but several other countries, especially European nations, have been facing an energy crisis. This has led to a rise in demand for coal — one of the cheapest and dirtiest fuels.

Has Europe really gone back to using more coal?

The International Energy Agency (IEA) in its annual coal report, published last year in December, said, “Global coal use is set to rise by 1.2% in 2022, surpassing 8 billion tonnes in a single year for the first time and eclipsing the previous record set in 2013”.

It also mentioned, “Europe, which has been heavily impacted by Russia’s sharp reductions of natural gas flows, is on course to increase its coal consumption for the second year in a row.”

The report came just months after several European nations announced plans to reopen their mothballed coal plants (which are not operational current;y but are in a condition to be restarted), increase the production of coal or delay plans to shut down coal plants. Moreover, such developments stood in contrast to the 2021 agreement made by countries to phase down their use of coal at the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow.

What steps have European countries taken to use more coal?

Just last week, the United Kingdom announced that a part of its Nottinghamshire coal-burning power plant would remain open two years “beyond its planned closure date after a call from ministers prompted by the UK’s energy crisis”, The Guardian reported. Initially, the government was supposed to shut the unit down by 2022.

Not only this, in December last year, the UK declared to open its first new coal mine in the country in 30 years in Cumbria, Fobes reported. However, the government said the coal would be used for producing steel, not power.

Meanwhile, Italy also decided to delay its plan of disabling six coal plants by 2025. The country plans to “increase output from existing coal-fired and oil-fired power plants”, Reuters reported last year.

Apart from this, some countries have revived their recently shut-down coal-fired power plants. One of them is France, which in November 2022, rebooted its coal plant located in Saint-Avold. The plant’s coal production had earlier been stopped at the beginning of the same year, according to a report by AP. It also quoted a shift supervisor at the power plant, who said, “Working here we know the negative impact of the coal plant, but nonetheless we see it as a necessary evil.”

On the other hand, after halting its natural gas and coal purchases from Russia, Poland suspended a ban on “the use of lignite — the most polluting type of coal — for heating homes until April 2023 to ease the supply crisis” in September last year. Notably, the country is one of the biggest coal producers in the European Union.

But when it comes to Germany, it seems that the nation has taken the most consequential steps to go back to using coal. In September 2022, the government announced not only to extend the lives of three of its nuclear power plants but also reopen five power plants that burn lignite, Forbes reported.

The officials said that these idle coal plants would be fully operational by June 30, 2023, and they “could add up to 10 gigawatts of capacity in case of a critical gas supply situation”, as per Reuters. Additionally, the country decided to delay shutting down operations of sizable hard coal-fired power generation plants up to March 31, 2024. They were supposed to be gradually disabled by 2023.

What does it mean for the environment?

Although these European countries are also heavily investing in green energy, the rise in the use of fossil fuels even for short-term purposes might have a catastrophic effect on the environment, experts suggest.

In its annual report, IEA mentioned, “investment into new fossil fuels infrastructure must stop immediately if the world wants any chance of achieving net zero by 2050.”

Scientists have also pointed out that in order to limit global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, it will require a 43 per cent drop in emissions by the end of this decade, compared to 2010 levels. However, as of now, the world is on track to increase emissions by 10.6 per cent by 2030.