Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has made his views on climate protection clear — not least by withdrawing the US from the Paris Climate Agreement for the second time. Now he has signed an executive order to ramp up the nation's coal production.

"America's beautiful, clean coal industry" should no longer be restricted, he told journalists this week, and instructed federal authorities to lift restrictions on the mining and export of coal imposed by his predecessor, Joe Biden. Older coal-fired power plants are also to remain connected to the grid — partly to cover artificial intelligence's growing demand for electricity.

Meanwhile, countries across the world are increasingly shifting to more renewable sources of energy . 

Coal's early beginnings

Coal contains the stored energy of plants that grew in swampy forests hundreds of millions of years ago and were transformed by pressure and heat into solid matter. It comes in different forms: hard black coal, or a softer brown variety known as lignite. Neither is a renewable energy source.

Burning coal releases large amounts of energy — more than wood — which is how it came, quite literally, to fuel industrialization in the middle of the 19th century. Mining this combustible rock and the emergence of large factories it powered led to new prosperity and enabled rapid progress.

From the United Kingdom to Central Europe and later the US, coal — sometimes referred to as black gold — provided the energy to unleash countless technological possibilities.

It became the go-to fuel for the steam engine, which pumped water out of mines, saw textile factories roar to life and powered trains. 

But coal-driven societies also inflicted enormous damage on people and nature, through air pollution, social upheaval and ultimately by heating the planet.

A booming climate killer

Because burning coal produces significantly more CO2 than other fossil fuels, it has gone down in history as a cause of the climate change, threatening the livelihoods of millions of people around the world today and in the future. 

As a result, some countries decided to phase out coal years ago — and more and more are following suit. Europe, in particular, is leading the way.

Nevertheless, more coal is being burned today than ever before . This is particularly true for countries such as China, India and Indonesia, who need energy to fuel their growing populations and economies. 

Germany, EU phasing out coal

President Trump has falsely claimed that he is following Germany as a role model for a return to coal and fossil fuels. The opposite is true.

With the exception of the energy crisis triggered by Russia's war in Ukraine, which saw a brief ramping up of coal-fired power plants as an emergency reserve, the fuel has been in decline in Germany for years. And is due to be phased out completely by 2038.

Renewable energies from solar, wind and biomass have grown dramatically since the 2000s and now supply over half of Germany's electricity.

Coal-fired power generation is also steadily decreasing across the European Union. Countries have different phaseout targets, but the bloc as a whole wants to be climate-neutral by 2050.

Coal has also been losing importance in the US for years, with only a third as much electricity generated from it now than in 2005. Trump's announcement could put an end to this trend.

At the same time, the US president is also blocking the expansion of wind and solar energy on home turf. And his new tariffs look set to make the construction of new renewable projects more expensive.

It remains to be seen whether Trump's policies will cause the nation's emissions to rise again, but there are many ways they can have an impact on the energy transition.

The phaseout of coal-fired power generation is crucial for the decarbonization of other technologies, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps, which are also powered by electricity. 

Coal responsible for deadly air pollution, health problems

Coal isn't only the most climate-damaging of all fossil fuels with the highest CO2 emissions, it's also deadly. This was confirmed by scientists from several renowned universities in a joint study from 2021, which found that around 8 million people die every year as a result of fine particle pollution caused by burning coal, oil and gas. 

Coal-fired power plants and the burning of diesel, for example in road traffic, are mainly responsible for this. China and India, the world's largest coal burners, account for over 60% of deaths.

Neither India nor China have set binding targets for phasing out coal, with the latter constructing several new plants in recent years. They argue that they still need the fuel for their economic growth and energy security.

At the same time, however, both countries are promoting the expansion of renewable energies. China is now building almost twice as many wind and solar power plants as the rest of the world combined, and investing more than any other state in renewables. 

What are the costs for the health and economy?

Researchers, including scientists from Harvard University in the US, have emphasized that a transition toward clean energy would also directly benefit human health, which implies reduced costs in that sector.

In many parts of the world, electricity from coal is now significantly more expensive than that from renewables.

One reason why India, for example, still relies primarily on coal are the costs of upfront investments in solar and wind infrastructure. Support with financing, for example through favorable loans, could also accelerate the coal phaseout there.

In order to prevent the planet from heating above 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), all rich countries would have to phase out coal by 2030 and all developing countries by 2040. 

This article was originally written in German.