Verein der Kohlenimporteure. Annual report 2018. Facts and trends 2017/18

News of its death is premature. After two years of declining global hard coal production and declining world trade, the market has made a significant recovery. Anything else would also have been surprising. New power plants are under construction in many emerging and developing countries because their development models are based on hard coal. Their new demand compensates for the decline in consumption, which is occurring primarily in Europe. World energy consumption has increased substantially faster than hard coal consumption; natural gas and oil have posted strong gains - as have the CO₂ emissions. The situation in Germany is virtually the same. In this country as well, consumption of natural gas and oil is on the rise because of increasing consumption in the transport sector and industry. In contrast to global development, however, consumption of hard coal in Germany is declining rapidly. The use of hard coal for power generation in Germany fell dramatically in 2017 (-17 %). As of June 2018, it is apparent that a further decline of about 20 % is to be expected over the remainder of the year. This is in part due to the increased feed-in from renewable energy sources, especially wind energy, and in part to the subsidised use of natural gas CHP plants. In consequence, hard coal has for all practical purposes fulfilled its contribution to the CO₂ reduction targets set forth in the German government's Climate Protection Plan. There is absolutely no reason to introduce any additional restrictive regulations for power generation using imported hard coal within the scope of the newly established commission ''Growth, Structural Transformation and Employment.'' It would also be unreasonable to burden hard coal with an overproportional adaptation obligation, because hard coal-fired power plants are needed for the energy transition. They serve to secure load peaks and as backups for dark doldrums. And in contrast to open-cycle gas turbines, which have a lower degree of efficiency, hard coal-fired power plants are available right now. Moreover, practical experience indicates that the interest in investing in open-cycle gas turbines is currently equal to zero. At best, the sluggish expansion of power lines could force short-term investments in open-cycle gas turbines in specific regions once the nuclear power plants have been shut down. When we think about it rationally, we see there is no alternative to imported hard coal. It is needed to secure low-priced energy supplies. In an open economy in which the German export surpluses have reached record highs, the supply of primary energy sources on the world market also contributes to a balance in trade with our partners.