Nikolay Dinev, 34, has worked as a coal miner for 12 years, but now faces an uncertain future as an EU-wide exit from coal is discussed at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
“It will be a disaster... The closure is inevitable,” Dinev told Agence France-Presse on the outskirts of the Maritsa East complex in central Bulgaria.
Bulgaria — which joined the EU in 2007, but remains one of the bloc’s poorest and most coal-dependent states — had long refrained from setting a deadline to end power production from coal.
However, the Bulgarian government last month said it would propose 2038 or