ROMANIAN COAL AND THE ENERGY TRILEMA

Abstract

Multiple crises in recent years, including the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the global energy crisis, the climate crisis, the decarbonization of the energy mix, the European Green Pact, the energy transition, the conflict in Ukraine, and the energy trilemma, have created the conditions for a new energy revolution. If the listed influencing factors, the sanctions imposed on Russian oil and gas as well as the confrontation with the components of the trilemma, energy security, minimal impact on the environment and access to commercial energy for all are taken into account, ambitious commitments and programs to gradually eliminate fossil fuels (coal) from the energy equation and to replace suppliers of this type of fuels with suppliers of "clean fuels" will not be met by the established deadlines. The economic and technical obstacles that must be surmounted to assure energy efficiency, energy independence, and sustainability impose a cost on the final consumers (domestic and industrial), who are constrained by certain affordability limits. Can Romanian coal still be regarded a safety element for the national energy system under these circumstances? Although today's fossil fuel resources will sustain the Romanian economy at the present rate of extraction for another century, can they be adapted to meet environmental standards so that the cost of a kilowatt-hour of energy is affordable for all? Can the decarbonization of the energy sector be delayed in the current international context so as to minimize the risk of "energy poverty" among consumers and not increase Romania's electricity import? The focus of the current research is on an analysis of the extractive industry's current state in respect to energy trends supported by the World Energy Council (WEC).