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Just on your specific point; the US is a bit of an outlier on coal due to protectionist practices around the coal industry. If you look at Europe on the other
by ErrantX 7y ago
Just on your specific point; the US is a bit of an outlier on coal due to protectionist practices around the coal industry.
If you look at Europe on the other hand coal is in rapid decline (9% decrease 2017-2018 for example[1]) with many countries now being coal free.
In the UK we measure coal free time in weeks now. I expect us to be coal free for good in only a couple of years.
In some countries this is a straight switch to renewables but but often I think it's a staged switch through natural gas.
1. https://sandbag.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/The-European-Power-Sector-in-2018-1.pdf https://sandbag.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/The-Europe...
- durandal1 7y agoOn the other hand look at Germany, who has arguable gone the furthest in the "green transition", which includes shutting down their nuclear power plats. It imports 60+% of its energy, most of it from fossil fuel sources. But hey, German energy production looks awesome from an environmental perspective!
- ErrantX 7y agoThat was mostly a (slightly wierd) knee jerk after Fukushima. They are definitely another outlier.
- svara 7y agoThat's totally false, where did you get this from? Germany is a net exporter of electricity [0]. Nuclear is being phased out and replaced by renewables. [1] Yes, that totally sucks for CO_2 emissions... [0] https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/153533/umfrage/stromimportsaldo-von-deutschland-seit-1990/ https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/153533/umfrag... [1] https://i2.wp.com/adveco.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/EU-power-generation-by-source.jpg https://i2.wp.com/adveco.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/EU-po...