Coal's Demise In Europe Is Coming Quickly

     2021 has been a record year in the fight against coal in Europe. It is a fight that began with the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015. That year, the UK became the first country in the world to announce a coal phase out, setting a goal for 2025. In 2016, Belgium closed its last coal plant, France announced a plan to ditch coal by 2023, Austria by 2025, and Finland by 2030. In 2017, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Portugal announced coal phase outs by 2030 while Sweden announced one by 2022 and France moved its date forward a year to 2022. In 2018, Ireland committed to phasing out coal by 2025. In 2019, Slovakia and Hungary announced plans to phase out coal by 2030, Greece by 2028, and Germany by 2038 while Austria and Portugal moved their dates up to 2020 and 2023 respectively. In 2020, Austria and Sweden became the second and third countries in Europe to close down their coal plants while Portugal and the UK moved their dates to 2021 and 2024, respectively. 

     Now, in 2021, Greece and Hungary moved their phase out dates forward to 2025 while Denmark moved its date forward to 2028. Portugal closed down its last coal plant. North Macedonia, Spain, Romania, Montenegro, and Croatia set dates of 2027, 2030, 2032, 2035, and 2040, respectively. A number of these dates are still being finalized, and we need to phase out coal by 2030 to save the Earth. However, as we have seen, most dates are ultimately moved up by two to 10 years as utilities seek to avoid incurring extra costs from doomed coal plants. In many nations still working on plans, coal makes up most of their fossil fuel use, so phasing out coal is close to carbon neutrality.

     In countries like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Switzerland, Monaco, Andorra, and San Marino, coal is already not in use. Like it or not, climate deniers, we will phase out coal in Europe and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. We are only seven months into 2021, and we have already made more progress on this front than any prior year.