Germany belatedly joins Europe's war on coal

Europe’s largest coal consumer illustrates a pathway for the remaining hold-outs

The growing number of European nations that have pledged to phase out coal from their electricity generation fuel mix highlights a growing consensus that burning coal is inconsistent with the climate targets in the Paris Agreement. The latest nation to make such a pledge—Slovakia, which in June set a phase-out date of 2023—took the total to 12. For most of these nations it was a relatively easy choice. Take, for example, the UK, the world's first country to do so, back in 2015, just before the Paris Agreement was signed. The then energy and climate minister Amber Rudd proclaimed the UK would phase out coal-fired power by 2025. Since then, for reasons of economics rather than direct mandate,