Closed and abandoned coal mines

After an underground coal mine ceases operations, methane emissions continue to seep from the old mine workings and surrounding strata. If a mine is not sealed or flooded, the methane will continue to be emitted into the atmosphere for decades. This source of methane is called “abandoned mine methane” 

More information on this emission source can be found here.

 

Coking coal 

Coking coal is used as a fuel and as a reactant in the process of steelmaking. In the EU regulation it is defined as:

“Bituminous coal with a quality that allows the production of a coke suitable to support a blast furnace charge. Its gross calorific value is greater than 23 865 kJ/kg (5 700 kcal/kg) on an ash-free but moist basis.” 

It is listed within the EU’s list of Critical Raw Materials and has therefore been subject to delayed regulations. To ensure that steelmaking is not endangered by the restrictions, the EU Commission will establish the coking coal threshold once additional data has been gathered.

A coking coal mine is defined as “a coal mine where at least 50% of the production output averaged over the last 3 available years is coking coal”

 

Thermal coal 

Thermal coal is used primarily as an energy source. To achieve the EU’s energy and climate goals, EU countries need to phase out thermal coal. Europe’s coal exit timeline can be found here, and EU work on coal regions in transition here.

 

Venting 

Venting is the direct release of methane gas to the atmosphere. Underground coal mines can vent methane from drainage stations or ventilation air shafts.

 

Flaring

At coal mines, flaring is the practice of burning the methane gas that would otherwise be released directly into the atmosphere. It usually occurs at drainage stations where the methane content in the gas released is high enough to burn.  It can be seen as a form of methane mitigation as the methane is converted to CO2 which has a lower greenhouse gas warming potential. 

The EU Methane Regulation requires flaring of 99% efficiency, which is the requirement that 99% of the methane must be destroyed. 

 

Methane Emission Intensity/Emission Threshold

The methane emission intensity of coal is the amount of methane emissions emitted per unit of coal. In this report, the units used are tonnes of methane per kilotonne of coal. 

The methane emission threshold is the limit on the methane emission intensity of coal imposed by the EU.

Monitoring and reporting in active coal mines

• Underground coal mines are required to implement continuous and direct measurements and quantification of methane emissions from all drainage stations and ventilation shafts. 
• Surface mines must establish deposit-specific emissions factors on a quarterly basis. 
• Post-mining emissions factors must be updated annually and based on deposit-specific coal samples.

 

Mitigation of methane emissions from active underground coal mines

• Flaring with a destruction and removal efficiency below 99% and venting methane from drainage stations are prohibited. 

• For thermal coal mine operators, venting methane through ventilation shafts emitting more than 5 tonnes of methane per kilo tonne of coal mined is prohibited from 2027. This limit will be further reduced to 3 tonnes of methane per kilo tonne by 2031.

Methane emissions from closed underground coal mines and abandoned underground coal mines

• An inventory of all closed and abandoned underground mines whose operations ceased up to 70 years ago, including the requirement of methane measurements in all such mines. 
• Venting and flaring from all such mines is prohibited. 

 

Methane emissions of coal placed on the Union market

• Equivalence of MRV measures: Importers have to prove that coal is subject to the equivalent monitoring and verification of methane as set out in the Regulation.
• Methane intensity of production: Imported coal required to have a methane intensity below the maximum methane intensity of the EU.
• Methane transparency database and methane performance profiles: methane performance profiles for Member states and for exporters to the EU.

Emission reductions due to mitigation at active mines were estimated using the dataset of coal mines and methane emissions from Poland’s underground mines provided by Instrat. This analysis uses the mine by mine emissions as reported by KOBiZE. Reductions were estimated assuming all methane emissions from drainage stations are mitigated, and the methane emission threshold was applied per operator, i.e. coal mines which mined greater than 50% of thermal coal in 2022 were grouped per operator. Coal production decreases until 2031 were taken into account using PEP2040 forecasting. 

Emission reductions from the EU’s thermal coal phase down were estimated using only thermal coal phase down estimates from Poland, using PEP2040 coal production forecasting. This does not take into account reduction of coal production at coal mines in other coal producing countries. This should not significantly impact the analysis as any additional reductions in production is from surface mines, which do not currently report significant methane emissions.

Emissions reductions from EU coal mine closures were estimated using mine by mine data from KOBiZE for Poland. For mine closures in Slovakia, Czechia and Romania emissions reductions were estimated using UNFCCC reporting. 

Emissions reductions from closed and abandoned mines were estimated by assuming all current AMM emissions would be mitigated, including all emissions from EU coal mines closures until 2031 (as above).

The top 10 coal exports to the EU Market were estimated using Kpler data. 

The average emission intensity for coal placed on the EU market was estimated using 2022 methane emission estimates from the IEA’s Methane Tracker, and 2022 coal production reported by the EIA. The value is an average which includes all coal and does not split by coal grade.