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Abstract: The article offers an overview of coal production policies in the Czech Republic - the third-largest coal consumer in the EU and a post-communist country struggling to take decisions over the future of the coal phase-out. It developed its phase-out policy in the early 1990s to address the destruction of the local environment However, since then no steps have been taken in relation to phase-out. Instead, coal production stakeholders have attempted to maintain the coal lock-in and to reverse phase-out. The article begins by discussing the factors that have led to the ambiguity It then places the discussion over the future of phase-out within the wider context of a just transition, and offers insights into the Czech case which may prove useful to other countries considering transitioning away from coal.
Coal burning is one of the main sources of C0a emissions and driver of the climate crisis. The rapid phase-out of coal is therefore one of the most pressing aspects to climate change mitigation and key to the overall transition away from fossil fuels. While some countries have already shut down coal production (i.e. coal mining and coal consumption], many others are still reliant on coal. In some cases, like the United Kingdom, the market was one of the main drivers behind the decommissioning of coal power plants and mines.1
However, if existing energy consumption patterns continue phasing out coal in countries reliant on coal will be neither a straightforward nor a simple undertaking - mainly on account of local or national legacies.8 Coal consumption is tightly linked with the availability of coal. In some large coal consuming countries, the availability of domestic coal symbolizes security and energy independence.3 Coal is currently one of the cheapest, most stable sources of energy, both developing and developed countries rely on it for their economic development. In countries where coal mining and coal consumption are in private hands, it still creates lucrative business opportunities, despite the strong pressure to phase it out. Even when businesses are pushed into divesting coal assets, they tend to do so for economic reasons, and companies are still finding ways to generate economic opportunities for coal expansion.4 Phasing out coal poses an imminent economic threat to mining companies, as do the...