Coal sourcing

Vattenfall's goal is to enable a fossil-free living within one generation and we have a clear plan for phasing out fossil fuels in our business. Consequently, our consumption of hard coal decreased from 7 million tons in 2017 to approximately 800 thousand tons in 2022.

We currently operate two hard coal plants in Berlin (Moabit and Reuter West). According to a plan that we have agreed with the City of Berlin, we will phase out all coal in our heating business in Berlin until 2030 replacing it with climate friendly solutions.

As long as we need coal in our operations, we are committed to source responsibly.
Coal supply chain due diligence (PDF 181 kB)

Bettercoal

We are a founding member of Bettercoal. As a common platform for energy utilities, trade unions, NGOs and coal mining companies, Bettercoal works towards a global responsible coal supply chain.

The initiative assesses the sustainability performance of coal mining operations against the principles of the Bettercoal Code, a globally accepted standard for sourcing coal, and promotes continuous improvements.
Bettercoal (PDF 122 kB)

The origin of our hard coal

We are transparent on from which countries we source our coal from and publish this in our Annual Reports and on our website.

In February 2022, Vattenfall decided to not place any further orders of Russian coal and to phase out Russian coal completely. The last delivery arrived end of March 2022 and none of the two plants in Berlin run on Russian coal anymore.

As a result, the share of coal from Russia decreased from 85 percent in 2021 to 28 percent for 2022 as a whole. South Africa represented 54 percent of the sourced coal, 17 percent came from the US and 1 percent from Kazakhstan.

Sourcing from Colombia

Vattenfall has sourced hard coal from Colombia for many years. In 2019 we received the last delivery of Colombian coal. We do no longer source coal from Colombia and have no plans to start purchasing in the future again.
Vattenfall in Colombia (PDF 710 kB)

In 2017, we ran an extensive on-site Human Rights Impact Assessment to identify possible human rights risks through our coal procurement activities in Colombia. We publish this report and continuous updates on this webpage.

A human rights risk assessment in Colombia - November 2017 (PDF 2 MB)
In Spanish:  Evaluación de riesgos para los derechos humanos en Colombia – Noviembre 2017 (PDF 2 MB)

We published regular updates on how we are progressing with our work with Colombian mining companies:

Human Rights Risk Assessment in Colombia – update July 2018 (PDF 130 kB)
In Spanish: Evaluación de los riesgos relacionados con los derechos humanos en Colombia. Actualización de julio de 2018 (PDF 133 kB)

Human Rights Risk Assessment in Colombia – update January 2019 (PDF 157 kB)
In Spanish:  Evaluación de los riesgos relacionados con los derechos humanos en Colombia. Actualización de Enero de 2019  (PDF 151 kB)

Human Rights Risk Assessment in Colombia – update September 2019 (PDF 140 kB)
In Spanish: Evaluación de los riesgos relacionados con los derechos humanos en Colombia – actualización de septiembre de 2019 (PFD 153 kB)

Human Rights Risk Assessment in Colombia – update June 2021 (PDF 498 kB)
In Spanish: Evaluación de riesgos para los derechos humanos en Colombia – de junio de 2021 (PDF 514 kB)

We take criticism concerning issues of the mining business seriously and aim to contribute to continuous improvements in hard coal producing countries in dialogue with all relevant stakeholders. Please don't hesitate to contact us: press@vattenfall.com