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Comment by NicuCalcea | Hacker News Reader

Moldova's coal plant is in Transnistria, a territory occupied by Russia. There are no phasing out plans because we have no control over it.

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You could disconnect from it. That's much easier said than done and probably very complicated by the occupation, but I would guess that disconnecting would reduce coal consumption and greenhouse gas emissions proportionally to power usage.

Moldavians have bigger problems that greenhouse emissions.

Everyone claims to have bigger problems, but greenhouse gas emissions are the biggest problem.

Arguably, they are a particularly big problem to Moldovans because Russia's military is funded by greenhouse gas emissions.

Greenhouse gas emissions are a larger existential threat than global war. A global nuclear war might be more catastrophic than unchecked climate change, but probably not by much.

Disconnect from it? If it's connected to some kind of grid then you'd have to disconnect from the whole grid, surely? And if being connected to a grid that contains a coal-fired power station counts as using coal then how many countries are really coal-free?

Moldova has not purchased any energy from it since 2024.

I should also note it is primarily a gas plant, fuelled by extremely cheap (nearly free) gas subsidised by Russia. It only falls back to coal when supply is disrupted, which happened when Ukraine stopped transiting Russian gas on its territory.

How is it "Moldova's" then

Transnistria Is a breakaway country which is only recognized by Russia&friends.

It is technically still considered Moldova by everyone else so it's not differentiated in documents from the EU and the likes.

It is not actually recognised by Russia either. It is in their best interest to maintain control over it, but officially recognise it as part of Moldova, so they can blackmail the entire country.

Territory occupied does not translate to territory owned.

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