Environment Energy Mining Watch SEE|News|Poland, Germany, Estonia are EU worst power polluters

Poland, Germany, Estonia are EU worst power polluters

, News

Poland is the most-polluting country in the EU when it comes to producing power, a snapshot of latest data reveals.

The real-time statistics, mapped by Tomorrow founder Olivier Corradi, show Germany and Estonia are among the bloc’s dirtiest.

Norway’s, Sweden’s and France’s power production has the least impact on climate change, according to the data, although the latter two are reliant on nuclear energy, which some consider to be unsafe and not as cost-effective over the long-term.

Experts say the map shows the need to boost energy inter-connectivity across the EU, so countries can sell excess renewable energy when they produce more than they can use.

Poland had four of the 30 most polluting coal-fired power plants in the EU, according to a 2013 report by Climate Action Network.

Coal, claimed to be the deadliest air pollutant, has an almost mythical status in the country, according to Wendel Trio, director of CAN Europe.

The country generated 85 percent of its electricity from coal in 2013, according to data from the World Bank.

“There’s a long history of having been dependent on coal, when you compare to the Nordic countries or France and Belgium that actually don’t have that history, or that history has been gone for a long time,” Trio told Euronews.

“Coal has this mythical status of the material source that gave the country some independence from Russia, even though a lot of the coal being used in Polish coal plants is being imported from Russia, because coal-mining in Poland has become very expensive.”

source: euronews.com

Download PDF

LATEST NEWS

error: Content is protected !!