According to the Federal Environment Agency, the generation of electricity from coal caused 126 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2020. For comparison: emissions from road freight traffic amounted to 45.9 million tons in the same period. That’s a lot, but it was also a lot more, as a look at electricity generation in Germany in 2012 and 2022 makes clear.
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However, coal is still responsible for a third of the electricity produced – the larger part is accounted for by lignite, which is considered to be particularly dirty. In Germany, this is currently still being dug up in three development areas, such as the Statista graphic, created in collaboration with MIT Technology Review. Among them, the Rhenish lignite mining area is the largest. About half of the 126 million tons of fossil fuel mined in 2021 came from there. This also includes the Garzweiler II opencast mine operated by RWE.
Before that, however, the town of Lützerath, which is currently occupied by climate activists, must be cleared and demolished. Because of the energy crisis, there was no alternative, said NRW Economics Minister Mona Neubaur (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen). On the other hand, the climate demonstrators come to the conclusion that the expansion of open-cast mining is not needed to ensure security of supply.
(jle)
