Coal-fired power plants in the crossfire of the European Union's energy and climate policy

For decades, the European Union has taken decisive actions through its energy and climate policy in order to shift its energy mix from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. In 2017 the policymakers decided to remove coal from the energy mix in order to achieve the climate goals. Most member states have already announced the last date of coal phase-out. In the year of the Paris Agreement (2015) the EU28 had 292 coal-fired power plants working with 758.5 million tonnes of CO₂ emission in a year. (CarbonBrief.org) According to our calculation, four large companies are responsible for 40.5% of CO2 emission. Our article focuses on the effects of the coal phase-out on the operation and future strategy of these companies, used mostly the annual reports as sources. Our findings are summarised in case studies. Although coal phase-out severely affects these companies, it does not shake their operation. The strategies using by the companies are mostly proactive and similar in the main principles. They want to be leaders rather than sufferers of the transformation of the energy system.