The big mistakes of the EU in energy policy

Of Thanks to Floudopoulos

Europe’s decision to lead the effort to rapidly decarbonize its energy system, even pursuing an aggressive policy to reduce coal use, mainly in electricity generation, has so far had little or no impact on the fight against the climate crisis.

This is at least shown by the data on global coal consumption, according to which the reduction of coal consumption in Europe is overshadowed by the rapid increase recorded mainly in China and India.

So at the same time that Europe is committed to reducing carbon emissions, even paying a heavy price due to the energy crisis, China and India are not only not reducing but significantly increasing their emissions, zeroing in on any benefit from the European climate strategy.

The data presented in an article in Kathimerini by the professor and former minister G. Maniatis are revealing, analyzing the climate crisis in numbers.

Research shows that coal-fired power generation, despite declining sharply in the European Union, remains stable globally. Why is this happening;

Coal-fired power generation over the next 4 years will remain stable at just over 10,000TWh as increases in China and India are offset by reductions in the US and EU.

The data on the carbon fleet around the world are impressive:

There are 468 active coal plants in Europe and 27 more are under construction

There are 2363 active coal plants in China and 1171 are still under construction, ie it will reach a total of 3534 coal plants

India has 589 active coal plants and is building another 446, ie it will reach 1035

It is noted that China, in addition to coal factories within the borders, also builds 50GW of new coal factories in countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey, Bangladesh, Laos, etc.

In other words, China not only does not limit its own coal consumption, but instead exports know-how and capital by investing in the development of coal plants in other countries.

It is worth noting that according to recent estimates by the International Energy Agency for the evolution of global coal consumption by region by 2024, which the study cites, there is a continuing increase in consumption in China, India and the rest of Asia.

As for the formal commitments to reduce carbon emissions, as the study points out, from the entire G20, the EU. of 27, the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Japan are committed to a permanent reduction in their emissions so that by 2050 they have switched to a neutral carbon balance. On the contrary, China will continue to increase its emissions until 2030 and is committed to zeroing them in 2060.

In other words, it is clear that any effort is made by the EU. to deal with the climate crisis, it is doomed to fail if not combined with an explicit commitment to reducing emissions from developing countries, especially China and India, which are currently at the top of the list of major polluters.

Otherwise, Europe is doomed to pay the heavy price of the energy transition without a substantial response to the great battle against the climate crisis.