Energy

Pressure on Warsaw to abandon coal is mounting, with the European Commission joining the Czech Republic in a legal bid to force the Polish government to withdraw authorisation for a lignite mine near the border between the two countries.

Europe’s most polluting coal-fired power plant will shut its doors by 2036 in order to access EU investment from the Just Transition Fund, the Polish region of Lodz has announced.

A lignite-fueled power plant in Germany will close its doors six years earlier than planned, with its operator citing the “dramatic” increase in the price of allowances in the EU emissions trading system.

Plummeting costs and rising efficiency will help Europe’s wind power sector generate half the EU’s power by 2050 and ramp up production to well over double current levels, industry group WindEurope has said.

Local renewable energy cooperatives fear they could be excluded from government support or even lose out to fossil fuel companies under draft reforms to EU state aid rules, and their concerns have been echoed by the green energy sector more broadly.