Germany is world champion! In lignite mining. But it's not just lignite that leaves its mark; hard coal does too. A quarter of Germany's greenhouse gas emissions come from the 30 largest coal-fired power plants. But Germany is not alone in its hunger for coal, either in Europe or worldwide. The governments of the 20 largest industrialized countries subsidize the search for new fossil fuels with many billions of US dollars every year, even though these projects have no future.
Added to this is the sometimes dramatic damage to the climate, the environment, and human health. The Coal Atlas reports on all of this. It is being published at a time when an intense debate about the future of the energy sector is underway in Germany. In fact, the debate is about the gradual phase-out of coal-fired power generation. The Coal Atlas uses easy-to-understand text and clear graphics to show that this is both technically possible and necessary
- Factsheet: Key figures, facts, and statistics (PDF)