MEPs back subsidies for 'clean' coal

LEIGH PHILLIPS

08.10.2008 @ 09:44 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The building of new coal-fired power stations in the European Union would soon be outlawed under legislation approved by the European Parliament's environment committee on Tuesday (7 October), unless firms attach technology said to scrub coal clean of carbon emissions.

The committee yesterday voted to back an emissions limit of 500 grammes of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour on all new coal plants built after 2015. Because most coal plants cannot meat such a standard, the move would in effect prevent traditional power stations from being built.

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The days of coal in Europe are very far from being numbered, however. Indeed, the legislation gives coal a new lease on life by pushing the adoption of a controversial and unproven technology known as "carbon capture and storage" (CCS), which captures the carbon from emissions and stores it in geological formations underground or under the ocean.

"[The vote] will force utilities to invest in CO2 capture and storage if they want to build new coal-fired power plants," said Eivind Hoff of Bellona Europa, a Norway-based environmental group that has been the experimental technology's biggest champion.

The group lobbied MEPs heavily in favour of CCS ahead of the vote, and by their own admission were engaged intensively in formulating the text supported by the MEPs this week.

Earlier in the day in a separate vote, lawmakers in the committee also backed an EU-level funding mechanism to subsidise the building of CCS-equipped coal plants. The mechanism gives away to coal plants 500 million EU emission allowances under the emissions trading scheme (ETS) - some 3 percent of all allowances over the 2013-2020 period.

The allowances, worth an estimated €10 billion to €11 billion would fund the development of 12 large-scale CCS-equipped coal plants, although the allowances would be handed over only once the CO2 storage is verified. Under the legislation, one of the plants may be built in China.

Although in 2007 member states had agreed to the construction of 10 to 12 such projects by 2015, there had not yet been any money committed either by government or industry.

Norway's Bellona Europa hailed the measures, although they worry that the 500g limit - known as an "emissions performance standard" - being introduced only after 2015 will produce a rush of old-style coal plants being built before the deadline.

Most green groups, including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, are opposed to CCS however, arguing it is energy-inefficient, uses huge quantities of water, is enormously expensive and keeps the coal sector going instead of freeing up money for renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

Opponents also argue that CCS remains an experimental technology that will only be ready by 2030 - far too late to help with emissions reductions, with scientists saying that emissions must peak by 2015 if catastrophic climate change is to be averted.

Greenpeace called the emission performance standard voted for by MEPs "weak," pointing out after the vote that as of 2008, the cleanest fossil-fuel-based power plants already can emit less than 350 grammes of CO2 per kilowatt-hour.

"This weak emission performance standard will not deliver the necessary decarbonisation of Europe's electricity sector. It means that highly polluting plants will continue to be built across the EU," said Joris den Blanken, a climate campaigner with the group.

"Coal was dirty in the 19th century and it's still dirty today."

Following the environment committee vote, EU member states will now consider the matter ahead of the European Parliament taking a formal position in a plenary vote in early December.