Europe is Still Burning....

Damning new report reveals the indigenous communities torn up by coal imports that continue to power Europe and its steel industry

Today, Tuesday 30^th March, Still Burning - a network against hard coal and neocolonialism – releases a new report Still Burning. The report shines a spotlight on Europe's continued coal imports in the run-up to COP26. It also tells the harrowing but little-known stories of the communities from Russia, Colombia, the USA, and Australia whose homes and way of life are literally torn up to mine the coal beneath them, suffering widespread human rights abuses.

Coal production around Europe is falling, but in Russia it’s rising to compensate and to extend the market eastwards.

Some European governments have announced coal power phase-outs, but some like in Germany are so far away (2038) as to be almost meaningless. Even in countries where coal for electricity has been phased out - such as Austria - are consuming coal to make steel. In fact in Austria coal-fired blast furnaces, are the single biggest site emitters of CO2 in the country.

There is an urgent need to stop all coal extraction and decarbonise the electricity and steel making industries.

You can download the report from https://stillburning.net/book/

Still Burning concludes that European utilities and governments must bear more responsibility for the disaster that is unfolding in coal producing regions, and so must act to halt and reverse the damage as well as compensate those impacted.

Our high energy lifestyles are fuelled by coal mines abroad forced on people unfortunate enough to live close to large coal deposits. These people rarely see any of the financial wealth raised from the exports to Europe of coal from under their homes. Instead, they are left with all the local harms and often the worst impacts of climate change.

Continues below...

Russia is the biggest exporter of coal to Europe supplying 41% of the coal imported into the European Union in 2017. 76% of Russia’s coal is mined in Kuzbass – an area in southwest Siberia and most of the coal produced there is shipped to Europe and Asia.

Valentina Bekrinova, a native Shor person living in the village of Chuvashka, Kuzbass, Siberia says, “In front of the house is the Sibirginsky mine. On the other side of the house there is a waste tip from another mine. Our village is surrounded by coal mining, and the dust which blows from the mines and waste heaps coats everything…I’m afraid that Shor people will soon become extinct. This is why the most important thing is the protection of our ecology, our rivers, our taiga for the protection of our nation. We cannot live without [them].”

While the impacts of burning coal in power station on our climate receives some attention the human and local ecological consequences are almost always overlooked. But the consequences are dire:

“I wish that people became more aware of where their coal comes from. And about the consequences” says Luz Angela Uriana Epiayu, mother of Moisés Daniel, a young child who is seriously ill with lung disease living next to the Cerrejón coal mine, owned by foreign interests.

The giant open-pit Cerrejón coal mine in La Guajira, northern Colombia. The mine is the biggest of its kind in the world and is jointly owned by Anglo American, BHP and Glencore. The Cerrejón mine is in Wayúu indigenous territory and when mining began over 30 years ago, local people were not consulted. Instead their lands were seized, and communities were forcibly displaced, violating their constitutional land rights. The Colombian government has failed to adequately compensate any of the affected communities. Pollution and dust from the coal mine has caused the contamination of water supplies and the air.

Narlis Guzmán Angulo a human rights defender from Cesar in Colombia living near the Drummond coal mine says, “In La Sierra we have always been able to feed ourselves with our agriculture, but that is over... Opencast coal mining ruined everything. It has brought us all this: the collapse of the social fabric, unemployment, death, missing persons, displaced persons, political corruption, the loss of the vocation of our ancestors, the loss of our roots, environmental pollution, disease, prostitution, the sexual commercialisation of children, drug addiction, and poisoned water...”.

The answer to these problems is not to open more coal mines in Europe. True solidarity with people at the front-lines of coal extraction means closing all coal mines globally and to move rapidly away from technology which relies on coal and produces vast emissions.

Read the full report https://stillburning.net/book/ and also see films about these issues by Still Burning here.

Europe is Still Burning….

March 30th 2021

A new report – Still Burning – tells the harrowing but little-known stories of the communities from Russia, Colombia, the USA, and Australia whose homes and way of life are literally torn up to mine the coal beneath them, suffering widespread human rights abuses.

Public inquiry called into West Cumbria coal mine application

March 12th 2021

STOP PRESS: in a surprise decision, the West Cumbria coal mine application is going to a public inquiry called by Robert Jenrick (Secretary of State), announced late yesterday (11.03.2021). Climate change will never be a local issue.

Brit & Hiscox will never insure Adani coal mine

February 25th 2021

Major Lloyd’s of London insurer Brit is the latest firm to rule out insurance for Adani’s controversial Carmichael coal mine project.

Tonight is the end of an 800-year era for coal exports from the North East of England

February 18th 2021

Tonight, 18th February 2021, marks the final shipment of coal mined from the North East of England. This marks a momentous victory for the years of anti-coal action, most recently the successfully defeated open cast coal mine application in Dewley Hill, near Newcastle.

Lloyd’s of London Insure the Adani Mega-mine

February 12th 2021

People across Australia have been fighting for 10 years to stop one on the most devastating mining projects currently being planned on the globe. Folks in Australia have asked for our help to stop Adani and here’s why…

“Nothing neutral in new coal” – youth activists pressure government to stop coking coal mine

February 8th 2021

Today [8thFebruary 2021], youth climate activists added their voice against the planned coking coal mine in West Cumbria. Elijah McKenzie-Jackson (17) submitted a 111,000 signature petition to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Urgent youth action- demand that government stops a new coal mine & gets real about climate change

February 5th 2021

Thanks everyone who helped, this action has now ended.
Could you participate in an online demonstration? We’re asking young people to take a photograph of themselves with a placard against the planned coal mine. We want to add these photos to a video of us sending this petition on Monday to demand the government stops this coal mine.

Key facts and figures on the West Cumbria Mining Project

February 1st 2021

West Cumbria Mining Ltd. want to extract 2.78 million tonnes of coking coal a year from under the sea near Whitehaven in a ‘deep’ coal mine. The coal is predominantly for export and would be consumed by the steel industry. Find out the truth about the proposal.

Disappointment as Government allows underground coking coal mine application to go ahead

January 11th 2021

We’re disappointed to let you know that on the 6th January 2020, the Secretary of State for Housing Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick said that the government will not step in and review Cumbria County Council’s decision to approve the Woodhouse Colliery Application.

12 3

Never miss an update! Sign up to our Newsletter

OTHER STORIES