Bellona says that the coal industry is taking more initiative toward environmental responsibility than the Norwegian political establishment. The CO-2 free coal burning plant will be at first a pilot project and will be built next to the existing Schwarz Pump south of Berlin. The CO2 –free installation is expected to cost EUR 40m and Vattenfall projects it will be up and running by 2008. “The threats of climate change constitutes the demand for action from the business community and industry,” said Vattenfall director Lars Josefsson at a press briefing.

The project is a co-operative effort between Vattenfall and various German business institutes. In addition to getting rid of CO-2 emissions from Schwarz Pump will amplify the case for new technologies. Vattenfall says the CO-2 which is cleaned from its coal based power production will be later deposited in underground geologic formations. “Bellona has long said that hesitating to build gasworks with CO-2 cleansing here in this country can risk that the coal industry can wrench the environment from us,” said Bellona President Frederic Hauge. He recalled the argument that are often used by those who are dependent on the building of conventional power stations—that Norway must make itself dependent on imports from polluting coal powered stations.

“Now, the ever so fulminating coal industry has therfor taken an environmental grip that we have yet to see in this country. We know that cleansing technologies are available, and now Norwegian politicians must use this opportunity and lay out their relationship to building gas works with CO-2 cleansing technologies,” Hauge said.