In an over lunch meeting I had with the Ambassador HE Raimundo Robredo accompanied by Ana Mara Martinez and Fernando de Castro of the Spanish Embassy in South Africa, we had an interesting, yet intense, debate over European foreign policy, particularly on energy in Africa.
Reflecting on the successes and setbacks experienced by Spain when it transitioned away from reliance on fossil fuels, Robredo related his experience of growing up in a coal region of Spain. He painted a rosy picture. Today coal mining in Spain has ceased almost completely and now his region is a tourist destination.
A report produced by World Resource Institute titled, Spains National Strategy to Transition Coal-Dependent Communities, on December 23, 2021, said:
Since 2010, EU legislation has been a major driver of Spains coal mines closures: Decision 2010/787/EU called for Member States to cease financial support to uncompetitive coal mines, and close them by December 31, 2018. The share of coal in Spains power generation fell from 40% in 1990 to 5% in 2019 (most of which is imported), and employment in the coal mining sector went from more than 45000 in 1990, to 3400 in 2012, to 1700 in 2017 (plus additional contract workers and employees of coal-fired power plants).
Mining towns are already struggling due to the industrys gradual decline, with depopulation rates as high as 40%. Because of their rural nature and lack of a diversely skilled workforce, these areas struggle to attract new enterprises. Strong local coalitions have emerged to slow or stop mine closures, including workers, unions, municipal governments and businesses indirectly supported by the coal industry, and they have hindered successive plans to close coal mines over past decades. Job losses are of particular concern for Spain, because even before the Covid-19 pandemic, its unemployment rate was double the EU average, the report said.
