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Greece, Hungary pledge to phase out coal-fired generation

During the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York, the leaders of Greece and Hungary pledged to shut down all coal-fired power generation facilities in their countries and to transition to renewable energy resources.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that Greece will adopt a new energy and climate policy to phase out lignite-run electricity production units in the country by 2028, according to a Sept. 25 report by Balkan Green Energy News.

The plan would also boost renewables' share in the country's generation mix to 35% by 2030, and ban single-use plastics starting 2021, according to the report.

Currently, a new lignite power plant named Ptolemaida V is being built in Greece by majority state-owned electric utility Public Power Corporation SA.

According to a separate report by Europe Beyond Coal, the facility is supposed to operate beyond 2050. It is yet unclear how the Greek government would handle the project after Mitsotakis' announcement of the coal phase-out target date. Additional details about the strategy to achieve the target will reportedly be announced by the end of 2019.

Meanwhile, Hungarian President János Áder announced that Hungary will also stop generating electricity using coal and will instead boost the production of solar and nuclear power plants, according to a Sept. 26 report by pv magazine.

Áder said Hungary will increase its solar production 10 times, aiming for 90% carbon-free electricity production in the country by 2030.

Europe Beyond Coal, an alliance of groups campaigning to make Europe coal free by 2030 or sooner, said in a Sept. 24 report that Hungary should aim for a 2025 phase out date instead of 2030.