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Balkans: study, coal power plants still breach limits

Emissions increased since 2016 instead of being reduced

10 December, 17:23
(by Stefano Giantin) (ANSA) - BELGRADE, 10 DEC - The sulphur dioxide (S02) emissions from various coal power plants located in the Balkans were more than six times as high in 2018 as the overall ceiling agreed with the Energy Community and the emissions of SO2 and dusts have increased in the last three years, instead of being reduced, a new study released today shows.

The report "Comply or Close", produced by the watchdog CEE Bankwatch Network, states that the emissions of often obsolete power plants in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia, fired mostly by the cheapest and most polluting coal, lignite, "have increased - not decreased - since 2016." In 2016, 16 plants in the Balkans emitted as much sulphur dioxide and dust as 250 plants from the European Union together, the study recalls. Lignite is widely available and very cheap in the region.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia have agreed with the Energy Community to implement so-called National Emission Reduction Plans," which allows plants to be "gradually brought into compliance as a group, with the better-performing plants balancing out the poorer-performing ones," the study said. "Countries in the Western Balkans are signatories of the Energy Community Treaty, which includes industrial pollution reduction targets, the first of which should have been implemented by 2018. Yet the new research highlights that, not only are the countries breaking their commitments, but at some plants in the region, pollution levels have worsened," the report claims. "None of the countries that made National Emissions Reduction Plans complied with their national emission ceilings in 2018," with total SO2 emissions from the four countries are 603,988 tonnes, more than six times higher than the 98,696 tonnes overall ceiling, CEE Bankwatch Network said. Serbia and Bosnia are the biggest contributors of SO2 pollution, with 336,373 and 202,028 tonnes of SO2 emission respectively.

Moreover, just one power plant in Serbia, Kostolac B, emits more SO2 than the total allowed for the four countries together, the study noted.

In terms of dust emissions, coal plants in the region exceed the agreed ceiling by 60%, with the ones in Serbia and Kosovo having the biggest impact. The power plant Kosovo B produces "around half of the total allowed for the four countries." "Given the life-threatening nature of air pollution, the neglect of this issue by the region's governments is incomprehensible and reprehensible," said Ioana Ciuta, Bankwatch Energy Coordinator and one of the authors of the report.

"Investing in pollution control is not just a legal obligation, it is a duty for any government that cares about its people," the study notes.

"Instead of investing in pollution control and steadily decreasing the share of coal in the energy mix, the Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Serbian governments are planning new coal plants, all of them in contradiction to EU legislation on environment, state aid and procurement," said Pippa Gallop, Bankwatch Senior Energy Advisor for South East Europe and co-author of the research.

CEE Bankwatch Network appealed to the EU and the Energy Community to introduce a carbon tax to punish heavy polluters in the Balkans and to the local governments to "to redouble their efforts to invest in pollution control, especially desulphurisation equipment". The study will be presented to the European Parliament today.

(ANSA).

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