How the volumes of coal consumption in the European Union changed

Despite the forecast of an energy crisis this winter, the countries of the European Union were able to reduce the consumption of gas and coal, significant reserves of which were created before the introduction of the embargo on imports from the Russian Federation.

From the beginning of the 2000s until 2015, Germany, Greece and Poland consumed the most lignite among the countries of the European Union. Since 2016, Greece's place in this top three has been taken by the Czech Republic, last year Germany, Poland and Bulgaria entered the top 3.

In general, since the beginning of the century, the countries of the European Union have reduced their consumption of lignite almost every year. The consumption level decreased most significantly in 2019−2020 — 308.1 million tons (-17.2%) and 247.6 million tons (-19.7%), respectively.

The level of lignite consumption has been growing over the past few years: 2021 — 278.8 million tons (+12.6%), 2022 — 294.8 million tons (+5.7%).

Coal consumption in the European Union has almost halved compared to the beginning of the 2000s. Until 2008, the EU countries used more than 300 million tons of hard coal annually, since 2019 – less than 200 million tons per year.

Thus, in 2019, 179.2 million tons of hard coal were used (-19.1%), in 2020 – 145.1 million tons (-19%). In 2021, the level of consumption increased by 13.8% to 165.2 million tons. Last year, 0.1% less was used.

Until 2017, the top 3 leaders in terms of the use of this type of coal included Poland, Germany and Great Britain. Then the place of Britain was taken by Spain, which dropped out of the leaders in 2019. Then, in addition to Poland and Germany, the top three included Italy and the Netherlands.

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