Estonia is the only country in the world where oil shale historically supplied a majority of energy | Raigo Pajula/AFP via Getty Images
Estonia is the only country in the world where oil shale historically supplied a majority of energy, accounting for 73 percent of primary energy supply in 2018. But burning oil shale, which has a higher carbon intensity than coal, gave Estonia the second-highest per capita carbon dioxide emissions in the EU in 2020.
The oily rock can be mined and burned for power or heating like coal, transformed into liquid fuels, or used for chemical manufacturing.
When Prime Minister Kaja Kallas came to power last year, hot on the heels of the EU’s Green Deal, she pledged to end oil shale use for electricity production by 2035 and to stop using the solid fossil fuel in the entire energy sector by 2040.
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