Coal in Turkey

Coal supplies a quarter of Turkey's primary energy.^[1] The heavily subsidised coal industry generates over a third of the country's electricity^[2] and emits a third of Turkey's greenhouse gases.

Coal is a major contributor to air pollution, and damages health across the nation, being burnt even in homes and cities.^[3] It is estimated that a phase out of coal power in Turkey by 2030 instead of by the 2050s would save over 100 thousand lives.^[4] Flue gas emission limits are in place, but data from mandatory reporting is not made public.

Over 90% of coal mined in Turkey is lignite (brown coal),^[1] which is more polluting than other types of coal.^[5] Turkey's energy policy encourages mining lignite for coal-fired power stations in order to reduce gas imports;^[2] and coal supplies over 40% of domestic energy production.^[6] Mining peaked in 2018, at over 100 million tonnes,^[7] declined considerably in 2019,^[8] but increased again in 2022.^[9] Most coal is imported,^[10][11]as in contrast to local lignite production, Turkey imports most of its bituminous coal from Russia.^[12] Coal consumption probably peaked in 2022.^[9] The largest coalfield in Turkey is Elbistan.^[13]