România riscă sancțiuni pentru producția de cărbune cu emisii crescute de metan

A fact sheet by Ember detailing the risk of sanctions for Romania due to high methane emissions from its hard coal mines, which currently exceed EU limits, and proposing methane capture and conversion as a solution.

• Romania is the fifth largest coal producer in the EU. In 2021, methane emissions from coal mining activities accounted for 60% (213 thousand tonnes) of the total reported methane emissions from the energy sector in Romania.
• Hard coal mines in the Valea Jiului region, operated by the state-owned Complexul Energetic Valea Jiului (CEVJ), are at risk of non-compliance with the EU Methane Regulation. In 2022, these mines emitted an average of 14.9 tonnes of methane per kilotonne of coal, which is nearly three times the EU limit of 5 tonnes per kilotonne set for 2027.
• Despite plans to stop coal extraction by 2030, CEVJ increased daily coal extraction in January 2024 from 500 to 700 tonnes, with a target of 2,000 tonnes per day by June 2024.
• Romania's methane capture efficiency is significantly lower than that of Russia, Poland, Germany, and France, which capture up to 60% of mine methane, while Romania captures an average of only 25%. Increasing Romania's degassing efficiency by at least 50% could increase usable methane from 447 to 1,300 tonnes per year, potentially producing 9 thousand MWh of electricity and heat and saving 24 million tonnes of CO2e annually.
• Romania has not utilized 'abandoned mine methane' (AMM) projects, despite closing 173 underground mines between 1935 and 2019. In contrast, Germany uses AMM projects to generate 544 GWh of electricity and 108 GWh of thermal energy.

APA

Assan, S. (2024). România riscă sancțiuni pentru producția de cărbune cu emisii crescute de metan. Ember. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Factsheet-Romanian.pdf

Chicago

Assan, Sabina. România riscă sancțiuni pentru producția de cărbune cu emisii crescute de metan. Ember, 2024. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Factsheet-Romanian.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Assan |first1=Sabina |title=România riscă sancțiuni pentru producția de cărbune cu emisii crescute de metan |publisher=Ember |date=10 October 2024 |url=https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Factsheet-Romanian.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{assan2024romnia, author = {Assan, Sabina}, title = {{România riscă sancțiuni pentru producția de cărbune cu emisii crescute de metan}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2024}, month = oct, url = {https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Factsheet-Romanian.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }