Why Serbia is tied to coal

A coal depot at the ‘Nikola Tesla A’ power plant while the second power plant ‘Nikola Tesla B’ in the background, near Obrenovac, 40km west of Belgrade. — AFP

THE Kolubara coal mine in Serbia never closes – 24 hours a day, 365 days per year, excavators work around the clock gnawing away at the soil to extract the fossil fuel.

Although most of the world is shifting away from using coal because of accompanying pollution, Serbia continues to rely on it, depending on coal for some 70% of its power.