Preliminary data indicate that the EU’s coal consumption and production dropped to their lowest recorded levels in 2023, with both down more than 20% on the year, according to the bloc’s statistics agency Eurostat this week.
This follows two years of increases in both consumption and production in the region.
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Consumption appears to have seen one of the largest historical yearly drops, down more than 100 million tonnes (mt) at 351mt, the group said.
During the year, Germany and Poland were the biggest consumers of coal, at 37% and 27%, respectively.
Solar overtakes hard coal
Eurostat also said that in 2022, solar power overtook hard coal as an electricity source for the first time.
Hard coal, or anthracite, is a compact variety of coal that has the highest carbon content of all types of coal. Only two countries in Europe still produce it – Poland and Czechia.
Solar accounted for 210,249GWh of the EU’s total electricity production in 2022 while 205,693GWh was from hard coal and 241,572GWh from brown coal.
IEA sees historic turning point globally
Globally, coal consumption climbed to a new all-time high in 2022, remaining the main energy source for electricity, steel making and cement production.
This led to renewed calls for stronger policies and investments to accelerate the growth of clean energy.
Almost 200 countries agreed at the COP28 gathering last year on the need to transition away from fossil fuels and to triple the capacity of renewable energy.
The International Energy Agency thinks global coal consumption will also have risen in 2023, but sees demand peaking within this decade in what it says would be a “historic turning point”.
