Smoke & mirrors: how Europe’s biggest polluters became their own regulators
The European Union is in the process of defining new standards limiting pollution from coal-fired power stations in the EU – a once-in-a-decade opportunity to clamp down on toxic emissions killing thousands of people every year. A Greenpeace investigation has revealed the whole process has been captured by the coal industry, with the result that the emission limits the EU is about to agree could be extremely lax. Not only would most of the existing plants be allowed to pollute several times more than could be achieved by adopting the best clean technologies available. EU standards would also be significantly weaker than those imposed in other parts of the world, including China. The updated EU pollution limits must be in line with best available techniques limits. Based on a draft of the proposal, this report demonstrates that EU industrial air pollution limits currently considered in the process are much weaker than the standards in force in China, Japan and the United States. The report also shows that existing coal power plants both within and outside the European Union already have much more demanding emission limits or better real-world emission control performance than would be required by the draft proposals in the process.