The European Union reached historic lows in 2025 for electricity produced from coal, with 9.2% of total production deriving from this fuel, compared with 30.4% in 2000.
According to the European statistical office, Eurostat, in 2025 bituminous coal accounted for 3.7% of the European Union’s total gross electricity production, while lignite (a type of fossil coal) accounted for 5.5%.
“In 2024, the overall share of coal in electricity production fell below 10% for the first time and, in 2025, declined even further, reaching its lowest value of 9.2%,” the agency notes.
This figure contrasts with what was recorded in 1990, when coal still accounted for around one third of electricity production, with bituminous coal and lignite respectively the second and third main sources of electricity production.
In 2000, the importance of coal remained, representing 30.4% of total electricity production, a share that since then gradually decreased, “with slight increases in 2011-2012 and 2021-2022,” until reaching a historic low in 2025.
Eurostat notes that, last year, bituminous coal and lignite were, respectively, the seventh and sixth largest sources of electricity production in the EU, behind nuclear energy, natural gas and renewables.
The agency notes that this decrease in coal’s share of electricity production is due to some EU member states having “been progressively phasing out coal.”
Eurostat cites Portugal in particular, which in 2021 “stopped using bituminous coal in electricity production,” as well as Slovakia, which from 2024 “stopped producing lignite.”
In addition to this decrease in coal’s share of electricity production, Eurostat adds that within the EU there are also “historic lows in coal production and consumption.”
“In 2025, it is estimated that the consumption of bituminous coal and lignite in the EU reached new historic lows, of 107 million tonnes and 184 million tonnes, respectively,” the agency notes.
