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COP26 - The race to phase out Europe’s biggest coal-fired power plant

Geoff Riley

27th October 2021

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80 per cent of Poland's energy comes from burning coal and 20 per cent comes from one giant coal plant (Bełchatów)the scale of which is incredible to see.

Bełchatów is the world's top emitting power plant, according to research in Nature

Can countries such as Germany and Poland wean themselves off coal as a key source of their energy output by 2030? Activists such as Greenpeace continue to push for a faster shift towards cleaner power but naturally there are big costs involved in decommissioning and transitioning to a cleaner energy future.

This Channel 4 clip is a good one to view as background to the debate.

Just one week away from COP26, greenhouse gas emissions hit a record high last year according to a UN report. @alextomo reports from Poland, where coal still dominates the power industry. #EmergencyOnPlanetEarth https://t.co/0gTL4OmaTP
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) October 25, 2021

🚨In order to combat the #ClimateCrisis Poland & rest of the EU must phase out #coal by 2030 the latest. #Belchatow plant is no exception. It's unacceptable that its owner @Grupa_PGE has still no plan to move #BeyondCoal. That's why we decided to sue #PGE. https://t.co/D5iXM88Vr0
— Greenpeace Polska (@Greenpeace_PL) October 26, 2021

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Geoff Riley

Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for nearly forty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD and Revision conferences in the UK and overseas.

@tutor2uGeoff

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COP26 - The race to phase out Europe’s biggest coal-fired power plant

Geoff Riley

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