The Kolubara coal mine in Serbia is always open; excavators are there, working around the clock, 365 days a year, chipping away at the earth to harvest fossil fuel.
Due to the associated pollutants, the majority of the globe is moving away from coal consumption, but Serbia still relies on it, obtaining over 70% of its electricity from this source.
In the impoverished Balkan country, the fuel guarantees low electricity prices and creates thousands of jobs.
Apart from coal, hydroelectric power plants provide 25% of Serbia’s electricity, with renewable energy sources accounting for the remaining amount.
The coal extracted at Kolubara reportedly powers enough stations to produce half of the country’s electricity, with more than 11,000 workers employed to extract between 26 million and 27 million tonnes of coal every year.
Electricity prices are significantly lower in Serbia than in much of Europe — in June, a kWh was 0.096 euros, a third of the average of 0.289 in the European Union.
Aleksandar Vucic, the populist president of Serbia, frequently brings to the cheap cost of electricity in his talks.
Nonetheless, Serbia has increased tariffs three times this year due to pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to do so.
“Ongoing electricity and gas tariff hikes have helped to reduce fiscal subsidies and will be critical for financing essential energy investments over coming years,” the IMF said in a press release in June.
Serbian officials insist the fuel source remains vital to powering everyday life even as they view an eventual transition away from coal.
“We need to carefully and prudently plan the abandonment of the older capacity,” said Serbia’s Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic.
“Our objective for 2030 is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40.4 percent compared to 1990 levels, and to have 45 percent renewable energy,” she added, but offered few details on how the country would achieve the goals.
