Europe: 30 most polluting power plants

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has just released a list of 30 most polluting power plants in Europe. These are Europe's poorest factories, but they emit the most CO2.

The title of the most polluted power plant belonged to Agios Dimitrios and Kardia of Greece (belonging to DEH), followed by Niederaußem of Germany (belonging to RWE group).

The results of the WWF rankings are followed by data analysis in 2006, including information from the European Commission's Gas Registry.The global conservation organization relies on emissions from European power plants (measured in millions of tons per year) and ranks 30 plants that emit the most CO ₂ by performance level. (grams CO ₂ / kw hour).

Most factories are on the "Dirty Thirty" list of 30 most dirty factories, which are in German and English (10 factories in each country), followed by Poland (4 factories) Only four companies manage most of Europe's most polluted power plants, more than half of them are owned by RWE (Germany), Vattenfall (Sweden), EDF (France) and EON. (Germany) RWE and Vattenfall are also Europe's largest climate polluters.

In 2006, power plants on the ' Dirty Thirty ' list were responsible for 393 million tons of CO2 emissions equivalent to 10% of Europe's CO ₂ emissions.

Europe's most polluting power plants all use coal to produce electricity, with 10 major factories operating to emit CO ₂ with lignite. When CO ₂ emissions are considered to be the main reason for global warming and climate change impacts, it is imperative that a 'European Union emissions business plan' be issued. and more resolute to significantly reduce emissions by encouraging more efficient and clean plant investments.

"We cannot forgive power producers when they make money by polluting," said Stephan Singer, European Director of Climate and Energy.

According to Mr. Stephan Singer, the European Union needs to ensure that only companies that can clean power plants can make money in this area. Electric businesses and manufacturers need to eliminate the use of dirty coal as quickly as possible.

Accordingly, this needs to be done through the approval of the European Union's Emissions Trading System to help Europe achieve its 30% reduction in emissions by 2020.

Niederaußem power plant of Germany
(Photo: carbon-power.de, VNN)

Kieu Minh