Coronavirus slams Poland's already-troubled coal industry

It is one more blow that the pandemic has dealt to the global coal sector, already in steep decline in much of the world as renewable and other energy sources get cheaper and societies increasingly reject its damaging environmental impact. Economic shutdowns from the virus also have cut electricity demand.

The coronavirus has ripped through Poland's coal mines, where men descend deep underground in tightly packed elevators and work shoulder-to-shoulder to extract the source of 75 per cent of the nation's electrical power. Of Poland's more than 36,000 reported COVID-19 cases, about 6,500 are miners - making them nearly a fifth of all confirmed infections in the country, even though they make up only 80,000 of the country's population of 38 million.

The virus hot spots, centered in the southern Silesia region, have paralyzed an already-troubled industry, forcing many to stay home from work and triggering a three-week closure of many state-run mines that are only now reopening. It is one more blow that the pandemic has dealt to the global coal sector, already in steep decline in much of the world as renewable and other energy sources get cheaper and societies increasingly reject its damaging environmental impact.

Economic shutdowns from the virus also have cut electricity demand. Britain completely removed coal-fired power from its grid for 67 days starting April 9 - a record set since the Industrial Revolution as the National Grid works toward a zero-carbon system by 2025. “Coal is in a long-term decline,” said Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics. “It's simply cheaper to use gas or renewables, and the economics of coal just no longer make sense in many parts of the world.” “The question is whether the reduction in coal use is sustainable and will last beyond the impacts of the pandemic,” Ward said.

US coal companies, already in financial trouble, are more likely to default because of the pandemic, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Italian utility ENEL says it will be able to close coal-fired power stations that it operates across the world sooner than anticipated due to the virus. But China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, actually has been accelerating plans for new coal power plant capacity as it tries to revive its virus-hit economy.

Poland, under pressure from the 27-member European Union to lower carbon emissions, is seeing the pandemic complicate its coal troubles. Poland is the only EU state refusing to pledge carbon neutrality by 2050. Governments in Warsaw have argued for years that as an ex-communist country still trying to catch up with the West, it cannot give up the cheap and plentiful domestic energy source. It also says its reliance on coal plays is important for weaning itself from Russian gas.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)