Over the past four years, international coal trade has been reshaped by China’s surging imports. 

The European coal industry is at a crossroads. The European Commission (EC) Energy Policy by 2020, the 20/20/20 targets, is not favourable to coal:

a 20% decrease in CO₂ emissions does not favour coal compared with natural gas, its main competitor in electricity generation;

a 20% increase in energy efficiency will lead to a decrease in energy/coal consumption;

a 20% increase in renewables will displace other energy sources, including coal.

For China, coal is a crucial source of abundant, indigenous and affordable energy and is a pillar of economic and social stability. From a logic of energy security, and because the industry itself maintains a formidable political presence through the sheer fact of its history and size, this resource will continue to play a central role in the country’s energy mix. But in order to respond to the growing need to reduce the burden of coal use on the environment and the Chinese population, and to prevent catastrophic climate change, both Chinese leaders and the industry itself have faced a certain reality - coal must become cleaner.