SPAIN

Spain joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance in 2021 and has a coal phaseout date of 2025. The closure of its coal plants and mines has been well underway since the government formalized its just transition strategy in 2018, achieving a historic agreement between the government, employers, and trade unions. With the end of hard coal mining subsidies in the European Union, almost all of Spain’s remaining coal mines closed in 2018. In 2020, seven coal plants unable to comply with stricter European Union air pollution standards were shut down. In July 2024, there were nine operating units across six coal plants remaining in the country, with most units scheduled to retire by the end of 2025. The parliament of the Spanish archipelago, the Balearic Islands, approved a Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition in 2019. At the 2023 UN Climate Ambition Summit, Spain brought forward its coal phaseout date from 2030 to 2025. In October 2023, Spain and the EU also updated the EU member states' Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), including a legally binding commitment to reduce emissions by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 emissions. Spain has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050.