The legal limits on sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants across the Western Balkans have been exceeded multiple times in 2020, according to a new report by CEE Bankwatch and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
The document, written in cooperation with the Centre for Ecology and Energy and the Centre for the Environment, states that the expected impact of reduced economic activity, due to COVID-19, on the reduction of this pollution did not happen, as expected. Thermal power plants (TPP) that are covered by the NERP in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo emitted about 6.4 times more SO2 in 2020.
The report states that last year, the total emissions of SO2 of coal-fired TPPs in the Western Balkans have been 2.5 times higher than the emissions from all coal-fired power plants in the EU.
Presented data also showed that in 2020, Serbian thermal power plants covered by the NERP had the highest SO2 emissions in total, with 333,602 tonnes, and the second was Bosnia and Herzegovina with 220,411 tonnes.
“SO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants in Serbia exceeded emissions from all 221 plants in the entire European Union in 2020,” the document states.
The absolute regional record belongs to TPP Ugljevik, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with 107,402 tonnes of SO2 emitted last year, which exceeded the sum of regional national limits.
TPP Ugljevik in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kostolac B1 and B2 in Serbia, emitted almost 12 times more than the allowed values, despite the fact that they had built-in desulphurization equipment.
(eKapija, 08.09.2021)
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