Coal news and updates

Environmental groups called on Poland's prime minister on Wednesday to stop an investment of about $US4 billion into new coal-fired power in a dispute that pits worries about carbon emissions against fears of future power shortages.

 

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has pushed biggest power producer PGE to revive a plan for two 900-megawatt units in Opole in southern Poland, after its plans to scrap the project met with protests by local communities, who hoped for new jobs.

 

"This investment preserves the outdated structure of the power sector, hampering the development of a modern model in which any household could be a power generator," said Radoslaw Gawlik, a former environment minister and now environmentalist.

 

The plan would also raise Poland's dependence on imported coal, including from Russia, he added in a statement which accompanied the appeal to Tusk. The appeal was signed by groups including Greenpeace, WWF and Client Earth.

 

The Opole project is worth 11.6 billion zlotys ($US3.82 billion). Tusk has promised support for new investments by power firms as he says Poland will remain dependent on coal and may face power shortages in a few years. Poland produces about 90 percent of its electricity from coal.

 

The environmental groups said starting Opole would raise CO2 emissions by 9 million tonnes annually.

 

According to European Union statistics office Eurostat, Poland's emissions were 297 million tonnes last year.

 

The groups also said Poland risked EU fines as the investment clashed with laws on Carbon Capture and Storage.

 

The appeal was sent two weeks before Poland hosts annual U.N. climate talks to work on a plan by almost 200 nations to work out a deal by the end of 2015 to limit global warming.

 

 

Source:Reuters