Short Wave - A Rising Demand for Coal Amidst War in Ukraine

Episode Date: August 18, 2022

Demand for coal in Europe is rising as Russia's invasion of Ukraine threatens the country's vast natural resource and fossil fuel reserves - and subsequently, the world's energy supply. With trillions of dollars of Ukrainian energy deposits now under Russian control, the effects of the war are being felt far beyond the country's borders. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hello, Nate Rock, climate correspondent. Hello to you, Emily Kwong, shortwave host. How are you? I'm doing well, yeah. We're going to talk about something pretty intense today. Where are you taking us? Let's start there.

So I've got a story for you that I reported about a thousand feet underground in a place where it's actually sometimes safer to be underground than it is to be on the surface. Where is that? A coal mine in eastern U.S. Ukraine. This region is seeing a lot of conflict right now. Yeah, it's where most of the fighting has occurred over the last few months. Some of the miners joke there that the good part about being in a mine is that at least there's no air raid sirens because they're constant otherwise, and you're already underground, so you don't have anywhere to go. Obviously, the bad part is at the bottom of a mine is not the place you want to be if there's missiles being launched at structures

on the surface and there's little contact with the rest of the world. I mean, given all of that, what brought you to the mine in the first place? Why are we there? So Russia's invasion of Ukraine has contributed to an energy crisis across Europe and really the world. I mean, you've pumped gas recently, right? You know. I have, yeah. And in Ukraine, the problem is super acute because officials are worried there won't be enough energy for people to heat their homes this winter. So today on the show, how Ukrainian coal, a polluting fossil fuel, is trying to bill itself as a solution. I'm Emily Kwong and you're listening to Shortwave, the Daily Science podcast from NPR. Okay, Nate, you were saying there are big concerns about the coming winter for people in Ukraine.

What are they? Yeah, that's right. So it may seem a little out of place, right, to be talking about it now in August when it's hotter than heck everywhere, right? There's been heat waves galore. But the cold is only a few months away. And Ukrainian officials know that. Earlier this summer, Ukrainian president, Volodymy Zelensky, urged all of the remaining civilians in eastern Ukraine, which is an estimated couple hundred thousand people to leave because they will not have electricity when winter arrives. Wow.

Already being displaced by war to be displaced by loss of electricity on top of that, it's pretty extreme. And leaving in winter may be harder, I suppose, than to do it right now in the summer. That's right. And, you know, this is where it gets difficult. much of Ukraine's energy infrastructure, certainly most of its fossil fuels, are in eastern Ukraine. An estimated 90% of Ukraine's coal reserves are in the Donbos region, where Russia has made most of its gains and where it's holding on to land. And that is where we went to visit miners underground. All right. We're going to take a listen to Nate's story.

It's a beginning of a shift at this eastern Ukrainian coal mine. Men and women in stained uniforms crowd into a dark elevator platform and descend. Some 265 meters below the surface into a wide tunnel. The crew walks out across metal platforms laid across the hard rock floor, scanning in for their shift and cramming into a small metal tram with wood plank seats, four people to a car. Alexander Oxenov is the mine's chief engineer. So people are taken by these wagons on horizontal routes and also when it declines.

Another hundred plus meters below the surface. We also will use kind of transport with monorails. A series of monorails, actually. Three in total to get where we're going. Riding down Aliona Samarsk, one of the mine's employees leaned towards us in the cart. Aren't you afraid? Should I be? I thought being underground is the safest place to be right now in Ukraine.

Maybe it's a very much. So, shaktur is also, not so a lot of them things. Underground mining, dangerous as it can be, is normal. Missile strikes, not so much. All the same, we've agreed not to give the exact name or location of this mine for security reasons. Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine's electrical infrastructure since the start of the war and taken control of multiple coal mines. Part of a wider campaign, Ukrainian officials say, to cripple the country and its economy.

That's why some coal miners, like the ones we meet at the end of the rail, some seven kilometers into the mine, call this the war's other front line. It's very important for us to be here, says Miner Jan Kalvichukian, providing our country with energy, with power. It's a role coal miners here are more than happy to embrace. Their industry has long been on a similar trajectory to coal mining in the U.S. Down, phased out by cleaner energy sources like natural gas and renewables, as Ukraine looks to give itself a more euro-friendly energy portfolio.

Now, Oksinov says, standing next to a boring machine at the end of the tunnel. I believe that the demand for coal in the whole world, will increase because due to the sanctions, the import of oil is limited now, so coal will be in high demand. He's not wrong. Coal demand has increased globally over the last year as gas prices have climbed, in part because of Russia's invasion. Earlier this month, Ukraine suspended exports of gas and coal and its president, Volodymy Zelensky, stressing the importance of both warned of the winter ahead. Due to Russia's aggression, this will indeed be the most difficult heating season since independence, he said.

Hearing the calls for more extraction, more fossil fuels, Erina Holovko sits in her Kiev office and shakes her head. I do hope that this would be a really short-term solution. Helovco is the head of Eco Action, one of the largest environmental organizations in Ukraine. She wears a pin of Lisa Simpson on her shirt. Lisa Simpson? Why? I feel like Lisa Simpson in this world.

That's not easy. Holovko says that before the war, Ukraine was on a path towards decarbonizing its economy. Coal plants and mines were in decline. Coal communities were warming to the idea of a just transition. Ukraine pledged at the Glasgow Climate Conference to go fossil fuel-free by 2035. And now the priority is on the internal extraction. She gets it. The country is in a war. But longer term, she says, shifting to renewables is still the better answer. It provides energy independence and helps fight climate change. German Ghalasenko is Ukraine's Minister of Energy.

In the long term, of course, we should follow this Green Court and this Paris Agreement and everything. But he says the concerns about the next heating season, next winter, are very real and very now. They hit and target the energy sector because they know that we are preparing for the next hitting season. So that's quite a challenge for us. Ghalaschenko says there are coal mines that could be modernized, even expanded to help meet Ukraine's energy demands. And he says the country already has agreements in place with American-based Westinghouse

electric company to build more nuclear plants as soon as the war is over. But in the short term, the country needs to do everything it can to provide. for its immediate needs, which brings us back to the energy front line, nearly 400 meters underground, in eastern Ukraine. The miners direct us to put on respirators and move to a tunnel wall before keying hydraulics that move a gnarled circular drill bit up towards the rock wall at the tunnel's end. Small seams of coal glitter in the headlamps light. The tunnel becomes a cloud of fine particulate, fist-sized chunk,

of rock fall to a conveyor belt below. Normally, they do this six hours a day. After the demonstration, Olexander Oxinoff, the mine's chief engineer, says he hopes investments will be made in the region's coal industry. After the 24th of February, he says, our miners realized how important their work is to provide Ukraine with power. Because he says, that work is on their shoulders now.

For how long, nobody knows. Wow, Nate, this is just such a powerful example of the ways that energy and environment and conflict can all collide with one another. And I'm curious, when you say for how long, what do you mean? So in the immediate future, like Russia's military gains in the East are a real, real threat to the country's coal industry and really all of its mineral resources. A Canadian-based geopolitical firm did an analysis of this for the Washington Post that I just, read, and it found that Russia already occupies more than 60% of Ukraine's coal fields and trillions of dollars worth of natural resources. So there is a natural resource grab happening right now. And it's a real threat to the coal industry. I love that you featured the voices of

these miners, too. I mean, these are real people who are working in the middle of a conflict zone. And in the long, long term, do these Ukrainian coal miners really see themselves as being a solution to this whole kind of state of affairs? No. In the long term, honestly, some of the conversations I had were similar to ones I've had with coal miners here in the U.S. You know, there is an understanding that the industry is being phased out. None of the miners I talked to said that they wanted their kids to mine, even though their dad did and their dad's dad, it's a family tradition, partly because it's hard work, partly because they don't know that there's a long-term future in it. But there is a real pride in the profession, similar to the U.S., and definitely a

feeling of duty given the situation that Ukraine is facing right now. Nate Rot, thank you so much for bringing us this reporting. Yeah, thanks for letting me talk about it. You can and should read Nate's reporting, along with incredible photos from NPR photographer extraordinaire Claire Harbage, all at NPR.org. We're going to link that in our episode notes, so go check it out. This episode was produced and fact-checked by Rachel Carlson. It was edited by Stephanie O'Neill.

The audio engineer was Robert Rodriguez. Special thanks to translator Hana, Paula Marenko, and all of our Ukrainian staff. Giselle Grayson is our senior supervising editor. Beth Donovan is our senior director, and Anya Grunman is our senior vice president of programming. Before we head out, a quick shout out to our shortwave plus subscribers. Thank you for being one. Shortwave Plus help support our show. And if you're a regular listener, we'd love for you to join.

And you'll be able to get a show without sponsor interruptions. Find out more at plus.npr.org slash shortwave. Again, that's plus.npr.npr.org slash shortwave. I'm Emily Kwong. See you tomorrow.