In 2024, EU coal production and consumption fell to their lowest recorded levels, reaching 242 million tonnes and 306 million tonnes, respectively. Compared with 2023, the consumption fell by 13% and the production by 12%. This came after a record year-on-year decrease between 2022 and 2023 when production fell by 21% and consumption by 23%.
Source datasets: nrg_cb_sff and nrg_cb_sffm
This historical decrease in coal consumption in the EU was accompanied by a fading role of the fuel in electricity generation. The share of coal in electricity generation in the EU fell from 16% in 2022 to 12% in 2023.
Russia loses its position as the EU’s main hard coal supplier
In recent years, there has been a significant reshuffling among the main suppliers of coal to the EU. Net imports of hard coal from Russia plummeted by 98% between 2021 and 2023. This decline was a consequence of the EU’s ban on hard coal imports from Russia, which came into force in August 2022, following Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
In 2023, 90% of hard coal net imports originated from 5 countries: Australia and the United States (both 25%), Colombia (18%), South Africa (14%) and Kazakhstan (9%).
Source dataset: nrg_ti_sff and nrg_te_sff
In 2023, the EU’s import dependency rate for hard coal reached 67%. This dependency rate remains below the ones for oil and natural gas (95% and 90%, respectively).
