Protests in Germany against coal mine expansion

January 17, 2023
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN Topics

Protests in Germany against coal mine expansion

Subject: Geography

Section: Economic geography

Context:

A small village Lützerath in Western Germany that is set to be destroyed for the expansion of a coal mine was cleared by activists, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Resurging use of coal in Europe:

As International Energy Agency (IEA) global coal use is set to rise by 1.2% in 2022, surpassing 8 billion tonnes in a single year for the first time.
The reason is the energy supply disruption due to the Russia-Ukraine war.
The UK declared to open its first new coal mine in the country in 30 years in Cumbria.
The United Kingdom announced that a part of its Nottinghamshire coal-burning power plant would remain open two years beyond its planned closure date.
Italy decided to delay its plan of disabling six coal plants by 2025.
France has rebooted its coal plant located in Saint-Avold (the plant has been shut down at the beginning of 2022).
Poland resumed the use of lignite (the most polluting type of coal).

Coal mining in Europe:

There are more than 50 coal mining regions in Europe, spread across 17 countries.

Germany and Poland are topping the list of coal producers, followed by Turkey and, to a lesser extent, by Serbia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine.

Country of Europe	Coal Mining region
Belgium	Pays Noir, or “Black Country.”
France	Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin, Loire coal mining basin and Saar-Warndt coal mining basin were the major coal-mining regions.
Germany	The Ruhr Area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Lusatia, and the Central Germany lignite mining area. Germany’s last operating black coal mine, Prosper-Haniel, closed on December 21, 2018, leaving only lignites mines in operation, such as the Hambach surface mine.
Netherlands	Limburg was a coal-mining region until 1973
Poland	Silesia in Poland and the Czech Republic has more working coal miners than the rest of the European Union combined.
Romania	The Jiu Valley is a coal-mining region.
Serbia	Kolubara and Kostolac are coal mining regions. The REMBAS region near the Resava River is a coal-mining region.
Spain	There are large coal deposits in Asturias and León (almost exhausted).
Ukraine	Donbas, Volyn, and Halychyna are coal-mining regions.
England	The “Black Country” region (includes the areas of Birmingham Wolverhampton and Staffordshire). The Kent coalfield in Kent in South East England Somerset coalfields and Yorkshire (North west England) were former coal mining regions.