Lauri Myllyvirta, a lead analyst and author of the report, said the data showed that accusations against the EU of falling back on climate commitments were wrong.“There has been a very widespread perception that Europe is going backwards on climate change, because of the Ukraine war,” he told The Guardian.There was a misreading of coal consumption.” Some member states, including Germany and Poland, have sought a limited return to burning coal for power generation in the face of soaring gas prices and supply constraints after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.“If anyone had said a year ago that Europe could nearly eliminate reliance on Russian fossil fuels in 10 months, they would have been taken for a complete lunatic,” he said.Power sector carbon emissions started increasing again in December, as the sector continues to be plagued by the poor performance of nuclear and wind conditions were also very unfavorable, but reduced gas use outside the power sector has kept emissions falling overall."