This report explores the EU's bold efforts to diversify energy sources, ramp up renewable energy use, and enforce stringent energy efficiency measures amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent energy crisis. Discover to what extent the EU has overcome infrastructural and...

Fossil fuels have shaped the European economy since the industrial revolution. We use new long-run panel data to analyse the effect of both, coal and oil on economic growth between 1900 and 2015, exploiting variation at the level of European NUTS2 and NUTS3 regions. We show that the reversal of...

The upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai (COP28) will see a new round of battle regarding the call to phase out fossil fuels. Intense debates have taken place in Germany and the European Union (EU) to determine positions in the run-up to the conference. The main point of...

Low-carbon energy transition, which includes the replacement of fossil fuels with low-carbon energy infrastructure, the removal of subsidies, and other measures, requires households to be able to pay for low-carbon energy services. Economic shocks such as the coronavirus disease pandemic and...

Coal regions are particularly vulnerable to the plans to reduce regional pollution and move towards a climate-neutral economy. The European Union therefore supports the transition away from coal in those regions that are socio-economically most affected to reduce negative impacts for...

The challenge of conciliating global decarbonization efforts with socio-economic welfare in coal-dependent regions calls for innovative approaches for just transitions. This study proposes a circular industrial system that integrates CO2 capture through Temperature Swing Adsorption (TSA) with...

The Research Fund for Coal and Steel has made significant contributions to the European Green Deal and contributes through its steel-related research and innovation projects to the Clean Steel Partnership, the EU's new industrial strategy and the sustainable Europe investment plan. The fund's...

The Research Fund for Coal and Steel has made significant contributions to the European Green Deal and the Just Transition Mechanism through its coal-related research and innovation projects. The fund's portfolio of projects addresses key areas such as the creation of new jobs and retraining of...

The gas price explosion during the 2021/22 European energy crisis prompted a shift from gas- to coal-fired electricity production. Empirical evidence on the environmental and health consequences of such a fuel-price shock - as opposed to policy reforms - is scarce. We fill this gap by...

The Miniera d'Energia is a repurposing project for a decommissioned underground coal mine in Sardinia, Italy that aims to use the shafts for an innovative gravity-based battery energy storage system. Energy Vault, a global energy storage company together with Carbosulcis, the local mining...

The 2024 assessments of the RFCS Technical Groups (TGA1-TGA5) confirm the steel sector's critical role in achieving EU climate and industrial goals. Projects demonstrate strong alignment with the European Green Deal and Clean Steel Partnership, advancing decarbonisation, circularity, and...

This paper provides a spatial analysis of coal transition vulnerability in Indonesia. It uses a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative data on exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity to coal transition, summarized in a Coal Transition Vulnerability Index, with qualitative...

Prompted by the urgent need for a timely and orderly transition away from coal power, this paper critically examines the prospects for repowering coal-fired power plants with nuclear energy in China. While existing studies often adopt a technology-centric perspective that highlights the...

Although coal has powered economic activities for decades and significantly contributed to increasing economic welfare at the global level, its place in the modern economic system remained controversial because of its environmental impacts. Thus, cutting coal utilization and dependency on this...

To study the behavioral strategies of government agencies and the coal power industry chain under environmental regulation, an evolutionary game model has been constructed. Furthermore, a reinforcement learning model has been developed using the payoff matrix. By analyzing the characteristics of...

On July 15, 2024, China issued the "Action Plan for the Low-Carbon Transformation of Coal Power (2024-2027)" (hereinafter referred to as the "New Policy"). New Policy emphasizes that in order to achieve the 2025 and 2027 coal power carbon reduction targets, low-carbon transformation and...

The Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) is a European Union fund that supports research and innovation in the coal and steel sectors. Within the coal sector, RFCS focuses on promoting a sustainable and environmentally friendly transition, supporting the development of new technologies and...

Although the environmental impact of trade has been a long-standing concern, there is still only scant evidence on the channels through which international market access affects pollution. In this paper, we exploit the unique episode of China’s world market integration in the early 2000s to...

The inquiry examines the data envelopment analysis based efficiency analysis among green finance, energy transition, coal subsidy, energy elasticity and energy dependence in E7 economies. Accordingly, the research used E7 countries' data from 2010 to 2019 and examined the results with the data...

This paper explores the possibility of using voluntary carbon credits to retire coal-fired power plants early. It introduces carbon emission trading using the example of the substantial European emissions trading market. It presents recommendations for phasing out coal power plants and discusses...

While vintage differentiation is a highly prominent feature of various regulations, it can induce significant biases. We study these biases in the context of New Source Review-a program within the US Clean Air Act imposing costly sulfur dioxide (SO2) abatement requirements on new boilers but not...

Effective policies to mitigate climate change need to be accompanied by a socially just transition. This is especially relevant for coal regions. This paper draws on the experiences of past and ongoing transition policies, exploring their effectiveness and transferability. The challenges of...

Consumers purchase energy in many forms. Sometimes energy goods are consumed directly, for instance, in the form of gasoline used to operate a vehicle, electricity to light a home, or natural gas to heat a home. At other times, the cost of energy is embodied in the prices of goods and services...

Steam coal exporters face increasing uncertainty about future coal demand and risks of asset stranding. Nevertheless, new export-oriented coal mine projects are still brought forward. In this study, we use the coal sector model COALMOD-World to assess the economic prospects of investments in the...

In 2020, the Chinese coal chemical industry processed nearly one quarter of national coal throughput, and accounted for about 5.4 per cent of national CO2 emissions. Yet the coal chemicals' industry ability to limit oil and gas imports is appealing to the Chinese leadership in the context of...

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Indian power sector is the highest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2). In 2021, the power sector emitted 1104 MT of CO2 which was about 45% of the total emissions. Next was the industrial sector which emitted about 762 MT of CO2. Within the...

This report explores the EU's bold efforts to diversify energy sources, ramp up renewable energy use, and enforce stringent energy efficiency measures amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent energy crisis. Discover to what extent the EU has overcome infrastructural and...

Past periods of industrial development have gone hand in hand with the burning of coal, but there is little evidence on the effects of coal infrastructure on manufacturing growth in today's industrializing economies. We quantify the direct and indirect effects of coal-fired power plant...

As the power sector is the largest GHG emitter, it is important to investigate the fuels used in this sector. In 2023, coal was the primary source of electricity supply, accounting for 35.9%. Natural gas came in second, representing 23%. Asia has the largest number of coal plants in operation,...

Spain has emerged as a frontrunner in the global wind energy sector, boasting the fourth-largest installed capacity worldwide. The arrival of renewable energy as the main energy source of the future is particularly evident in the region of Aragón and its former coal region of Teruel, which is...

Ústí nad Labem is one of the regions eligible for JTF. Four pillars for the transformation and decarbonisation strategy of Ústí nad Labem in Czechia ensure a comprehensive policy approach. They include: 1) entrepreneurship, research, innovation; 2) competent people and smart region (e.g....

Ústí nad Labem is one of the regions eligible for JTF. Four pillars for the transformation and decarbonisation strategy of Ústí nad Labem in Czechia ensure a comprehensive policy approach. They include: 1) entrepreneurship, research, innovation; 2) competent people and smart region (e.g....

With climate change causing loss and damage, disrupting nature, and affecting the lives of billions of people, the world has accepted that it cannot achieve carbon dioxide reduction goals without phasing out coal. This paper argues that addressing the broader social dimensions of coal...