Factbox-How much coal does Europe get from Russia?

By Susanna Twidale

LONDON (Reuters) – The European Commission on Tuesday proposed sweeping new sanctions against Russia, including a ban on imports of coal which the Commission said is worth nearly 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) a year.

Europe has historically been a major importer of Russian coal, particularly thermal coal which is used in power generation.

Thermal coal accounts for around 90% of Russia’s total coal exports, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

As part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, many European countries have sought to reduce the amount of electricity they generate using coal, but it still accounted for around 15% of Europe’s electricity mix in 2021.

“Russian share of the EU’s imports of thermal coal is almost 70%. Germany and Poland are particularly reliant on thermal coal from Russia,” analysts at Bruegel said last month.

Bruegel data showed 67% of Germany’s thermal coal imports and 81% of Poland’s thermal coal imports came from Russia in 2020.

For a related graphic on Russian thermal coal as a % of total imports 2020, click

By tonnage Germany was the largest importer of Russian coal in Europe in 2020, the data showed, with 12.8 million tonnes.

For a related graphic on European thermal coal imports in 2020, click

($1 = 0.9123 euros)

(Reporting by Susanna Twidale; Editing by Alexander Smith and Bernadette Baum)