As Austria and Sweden close their last coal-fired power stations, is the corona crisis accelerating Europe’s move beyond coal?

Roberta Arbinolo reports.

The global pandemic is dealing a heavy blow to the most polluting of fossil fuels. While its price hasn’t gone negative, as has happened with oil, the coal market is struggling worldwide.

In Europe, coal’s share of power generation has dropped by 2% since February, Bloomberg reports, while it the US it’s down by 5%. Even in coal-heavy economies like China and India, the market share has shrinked.

The restrictive measures taken by our governments to slow down the spread of the coronavirus have caused a general decline in energy demand across the globe, yet the electricity market is among the least impacted. However, data from the International Energy Agency show that the coal sector is facing the largest decline since the Second World War.

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