MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2023) Finland increased the consumption of hard coal�by 10% year-on-year in 2022 due to its growing use in electricity and heat production, the Statistics Finland agency said on Wednesday.
In 2018, the Finnish government announced its plans to ban the use of hard coal in the energy sector from 2029. However, due to the cessation of electricity imports from Russia, Helsinki re-launched some of the previously decommissioned coal-fired energy facilities in 2022.
"According to Statistics Finland's preliminary data, the consumption of hard coal increased by 10 per cent in 2022 compared to the previous year. The consumption of hard coal as a fuel in the generation of electricity and heat and in manufacturing amounted to 2,015 thousand tonnes ... In 2022, altogether 51 per cent less hard coal was consumed than on average in the 2000s," the agency said in a statement.
The consumption of hard coal increased the most in the second quarter of 2022, by 26% year-on-year. Hard coal reserves amounted to 1.49 million tonnes, which is 23% more than a year earlier, according to Statistics Finland.
The European Union has been looking for alternatives to Russian natural gas and oil as it has pledged to end dependence on the country's energy after Moscow launched its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In particular, demand for coal, the largest source of electricity, significantly increased in many EU countries, including Finland, in 2022. It is expected to remain high in the coming years amid the global energy crisis. The EU member states are projected to increase coal production by 2.7 million tonnes in 2023, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in December last year.
