International Roundtable on the Future of Coal

The Roundtable brought together a small group of carefully selected energy and resource sector policymakers; power production and mining sector representatives; labour representatives; and research experts, including Jan Witajewski-Baltvilks from IBS.

The aim of the meeting, organised by Stanley Foundation, Climate Strategies and IDDRI, was to exchange  ideas and insights about the process of coal transition between stakeholders from various countries. The coal transition requires a substantial effort from a number of countries around the world, particularly those with economies that are heavily dependent on coal production or coal consumption. While some countries are only at the beginning of the transition, other countries have already decarbonized a substantial part of their economies. The discussion of experiences and insights provided an opportunity to learn for everyone, hopefully leading towards designing policies that could mitigate some of the most important risks associated with the decarbonization.

Jan Witajewski-Baltvilks presented IBS research performed under the Coal Transition project, described in the IBS Research Report entitled “Managing coal sector transition under the ambitious emission reduction scenario in Poland. Focus on labour”. He described the most important challenges for the energy sector in Poland and the consequences of the decarbonization for the labour market. Dr Witajewski-Baltvilks argued that the low-carbon transistion does not need to invovle mass lay-offs. The drop in number of miners will result from the natural attrition of workers in the sector.

Other researchers described the experiences related to low-carbon transition in their countries. The presentations of the case studies included Germany, India and South Africa. Significant part of the discussion was devoted to the achievements of the coal commission in Germany. The researchers discussed also the prospects of decreasing demand for coal in India.

More about the meeting: coaltransitions.org/events/