Coal, No Longer Shunned, Keeps Europe's Lights on Through Frigid Weather

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

63% : The European Union generated 22% of its power with coal and its sister fuel lignite, also known as brown coal, in the first two weeks of December, said Mr. Czyżak.
61% : "Whenever there's higher power demand, you ramp up coal as much as possible and it jumps into the system before the gas plants," said Paweł Czyżak, analyst at Ember, a think tank that aims to expedite the shift away from coal.
58% : "Coal will continue to be the global energy system's largest single source of carbon-dioxide emissions by far," the intergovernmental organization said, adding that it expects global demand to flatline before falling after 2025.
57% : In the first two weeks of December, Germany generated 49% more power with coal and 6% more with lignite than in the same period a year ago, according to EnAppSys Ltd.
56% : The continent has invested in wind and solar energy while closing dozens of coal-fired power plants over the past decade.
54% : But coal has taken the lead of late -- partly because Germany and other countries brought plants back online, and partly because gas is so expensive that it is more profitable for utilities to burn coal.
54% : "I find it hard to say at this point which is the likely winner," said Pieter de Pous, program leader for fossil-fuel transition at think-tank E3G. Building more grid connections so renewable power can be funneled across borders is also key, he said.
51% : Across Europe, industry is leaning on coal, as well as oil, to keep operating at a time of high gas and power prices.
50% : "Whether or not Poland will have sufficient amounts of coal really depends on how severe this year's winter will be," said Robert Tomaszewski, an energy analyst at Polityka Insight.
42% : Consuming large amounts of coal represents a difficult choice for European nations that had promised to ditch the carbon-intensive fuel to contain climate change.

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