Czech Coal Commission
“Czech coal basin” by Squicker is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
In 2019, the Czech government launched a coal commission as a government advisory body. The Commission was tasked with providing recommendations on the future use of brown coal. It was chaired by two government ministers, the Minister of Industry and Trade and the Minister of the Environment. There were a further 17 members drawn from coal mining groups, environmental NGOs, and energy companies.
The Commission initially recommended a phase out date of 2038, although this was not a consensus decision. Environmental representatives voted for earlier phase out while coal interests felt that the 2038 phase out would be consistent with market predictions about future coal profitability. This outcome was widely criticized by environmental NGOs external to the Commission. In the ensuing years, the phase out date has been revised to 2033.
Further reading
POLITICO (2020): Czech coal commission recommends 2038 phase-out date. Read here.
Funding
The CINTRAN project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 884539. The sole responsibility for the content of this website lies with the authors and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of CINEA or other EU agencies or bodies.