EU coal consumption and production fell to an all-time low last year, with coal burn nearly halving from 2018 as the solid fuel's role in EU power generation continues to fade progressively.

Coal production in the EU fell by 12pc on the year to 242mn t in 2024, while consumption declined by 13pc to 306mn t, according to Eurostat data. This followed a record year-on-year decrease between 2022 and 2023, when production dropped by 21pc and consumption by 23pc.

Although the energy crisis in Europe brought on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 provided a brief reversal of declining coal burn and output, the EU since 2023 has returned to steadily decreasing its use of coal.

Hard coal consumption in the EU was estimated to have fallen to 107mn t in 2024, 51pc less compared with 2018. Poland and the Czech Republic were the only two hard coal producers left in the EU last year, having produced 44mn t and 1.4mn t, respectively.

Poland accounted for 43pc of total EU hard coal consumption, while Germany made up 23pc. The Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic and Belgium also consumed hard coal last year, but at a much smaller share of total EU hard coal burn of 3-6pc each.

Brown coal consumption was estimated to have declined to 198mn t last year, 47pc lower than in 2018. Germany accounted for the largest share of brown coal consumption last year at 46pc, followed by Poland at 21pc, the Czech Republic at 12pc and Bulgaria at 8pc, while Romania and Greece accounted for 4-6pc each.

Separately, fossil fuels accounted for 7.2pc of total power generation in the EU last year, while a dominant 47pc of electricity was generated by renewables last year, Eurostat data show.

By Shreyashi Sanyal