04/10/2005 – After a summer
of climate-related flooding, droughts and
heatwaves in parts of Europe, a new ranking
by WWF reveals the continent’s worst climate
polluting power stations.
Dirty Thirty ranks the least efficient among
the biggest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitters
and finds that 27 of the 30 dirtiest power
plants are coal-fired, with Agios Dimitrios
in Greece, Frimmersdorf in Germany, and Aboño
in Spain heading the WWF table.
The global conservation organization looked
at the absolute CO2 emissions of power stations
(million tonnes of CO2 per year) in 25 EU
countries and ranked the 30 biggest emitters
according to their level of efficiency (grams
CO2 per Kilowatt hour). Most of the Dirty
Thirty are located in Germany (9 plants),
followed by Poland (5 plants), Italy, Spain,
and the UK (4 plants each). Greece has two
lignite plants ranked in first and fourth
place.
According to scientists, CO2 emissions are
the main reason for global warming and devastating
climate impacts on people and nature.
“The power sector is responsible for 37 per
cent of all man-made CO2," said Imogen
Zethoven, head of WWF’s global PowerSwitch!
campaign.
“Coal-fired power stations rank dirtiest,
because they use the most CO2-intense fuel.
To switch off global warming we have to replace
them with cleaner alternatives, such as gas
and renewables.”
Germany comes off particularly badly in the
survey. It is home to five of the ten dirtiest
plants, with four of them are run by the German
power giant RWE, the biggest CO2 emitter in
the European power sector. Dirty Thirty shows
that only half a dozen companies account for
most of Europe’s dirtiest power stations:
19 of the 30 plants analyzed are run by RWE
(German), Vattenfall (Swedish), Enel (Italian),
Endesa (Spanish), E.ON (German), and EDF (French).
Over the next 20 years many of Europe’s worst
polluting coal power plants will be decommissioned
— a historic window of opportunity to cut
CO2 pollution. The Dirty Thirty replacement
scenarios show that a switch to highly efficient
gas in the decommissioned plants would slash
CO2 emissions by 47.8 per cent by 2030. Replacing
them with new coal plants would result in
a mere 13.5 per cent reduction of CO2, nowhere
near the deep cuts required. Replacing the
old plants with renewable energy sources would
result in a massive 73.4 per cent cut in CO2
emissions.
“A crucial part of the solution to CO2 emissions
from power production is the European Emission
Trading Scheme," said Zethoven.
"WWF is pushing for strong pollution
limits and clear incentives to invest in wind,
water and sun to be included in the second
phase. Only tough limits on CO2 will force
the utilities to replace dirty coal plants
with cleaner gas or clean renewables."
END NOTES:
• European governments have a vital role
to play by enforcing strict pollution limits
under the European Emissions Trading Scheme
(ETS). From January 2005, the ETS has placed
CO2 limits on the chimney stacks of big companies.
Companies that exceed their limits have to
pay the penalty by being forced to buy unused
pollution allowances from cleaner companies.
Tough pollution limits combined with powerful
financial incentives to invest in cleaner,
more efficient technologies would transform
the power sector and reduce its CO2 emissions.
Unfortunately, EU governments agreed to weak
limits and weak incentives. Now the ETS is
being reviewed, opening up a big opportunity
to get it right next time.
