A letter to Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and Czech government ministers was co-signed by Green Tank along with 16 other environmental organizations and think tanks participating in the Europe Beyond Coal campaign, calling for a coal phase out before the decade expires. Such a decision will facilitate the proper planning and implementation of the Just Transition in Czechia’s coal and lignite regions to a sustainable economic model utilizing European funds.
In their letter, the organizations explain that phasing out coal in either 2033 or 2038, based on the proposal of the country’s Coal Commission, is incompatible with the new pan-European climate target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. Already 3 Member States of the European Union are completely independent of solid fossil fuels, while 11 more have committed to do so before 2030.
The NGOs also explain that complete independence from lignite and hard coal before 2030 is required for purely economic reasons as the price of CO2 emissions has already skyrocketed to 40 euros per tonne, while all analyses show strong upward trends throughout the decade.
They also point out that the report of the Czech Coal Commission proposing the dates of independence after 2030 is based on erroneous assumptions about the evolution of renewables penetration, emphasizing the fact that 2020 was the first year that renewables surpassed all fossil fuels combined in electricity generation.
You can read the whole letter here.