Poland has dirtiest power plant in Europe

The Belchatow plant: wikipedia

According to the so-called 'Dirty 30' report, all of Europe's most polluting power plants are coal-fired, and 18 of the top 30 are in Britain and Germany.

Poland, which produces about 90 percent of its electricity at coal-fired plants, has long been under pressure to reduce its CO2 emissions, which are 50 percent above the European average.

The Belchatow Power Station produces about 20 percent of Poland's electricity per year.

During the UN Climate Change Conference in Warsaw in July 2013, Poland's environment minister at the time Marcin Korolec said Poland would not abandon coal as an energy source, but pledged that new investments in the coal sector “will bring CO2 reduction, because we will change technologies from old-fashioned to new ones.”

“We will focus on coal while respecting the environmental goals,” Prime Minister Tusk claimed in September 2013.

“That means that we will invest in the mining and mining machinery industry in order to limit CO2 emissions through modern technologies.

"It doesn’t mean that we will exclude coal from our energy mix,” he stressed. (nh)

Source: PAP/euractiv.com