SPAIN

Spain joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance in 2021 and has a coal phase out date of 2030. 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 December 2023, there were ten operating units across seven coal plants remaining in the country, with several units scheduled to retire by 2025. The parliament of the Spanish archipelago, the Balearic Islands, approved a Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition in 2019. Spain has also pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050.