The Golden Age of Coal?

As part of the Ifri Energy Breakfast Roundtables, a seminar with avec Sylvie Cornot-Gandolphe, Energy Economist, Brian Ricketts, Secretary General European Association for Coal and Lignite (Euracoal), and Mechthild Wörsdörfer, Head of Unit, Energy Policy & Monitoring of Electricity, Gas, Coal and Oil Markets, DG Energy, European Commission.
Chaired by: Maïté Jauréguy-Naudin, Director of the Center for Energy, Ifri and Jacques Lesourne, President of the Scientific Committee of the Center for Energy, Ifri.

The future of coal in Europe is very uncertain. On one hand, European coal industry is facing climate and regulatory measures that question the place of coal in the energy mix: decrease of state subsidies to coal production, ambitious emissions reductions targets, stricter environmental standards enforced by the directive on large combustion plants and difficulty to deploy CCS technologies at a commercial level. On another hand, power from coal in some member states remains very important. In Poland, 80% of the electricity comes from coal fired plants. Several coal plants are to be built in Germany especially, partly to fill the gap left by the phasing out of nuclear power, and coal prices are much lower than competing fuels, in particular compared to gas, making power from coal more advantageous than producing it from gas. Whereas energy cost and supply security concerns are increasing globally, will Europe reconsider the place of coal in the European energy mix? What factors will impact the coal supply and demand in Europe? What to expect with regard to the 3*20 European objectives? A Q&A session will follow a panel discussion fueled by presentations of three experts on these issues.