Bellona Europa has been central to the development of this new report on different scenarios for de-carbonising power generation through setting a limit on the amount of CO₂ that can be emitted per kilowatt-hour – known as an emission performance standard, or EPS).

The report was launched at an event prepared by Bellona Europa in co-operation with Members of European Parliament (MEPs) Anders Wijkman, Adina Ioana Valean and Claude Turmes, with and Bellona Europa’s Eivind Hoff speaking on behalf of environmental NGOs.

Dr. Sina Wartmann of Ecofys presented the report, who amongst other things, showed that the most important for curbing emissions through an EPS is to apply it not only to new but also to existing power plants. This is more important than the number of grams of CO₂ emissions permitted per kilowatt-hour (the scenarios considered 500g, 350g and 150g limits).

The event attracted about 10 key MEPs from a whole range of political parties and countries, all of them sympathetic to the principle of an EPS. As a representative of power plant manufacturers, Markus Becker of General Electric also expressed support for the principle, saying that the EU emission trading scheme was not sufficient to de-carbonise power generation and that an EPS could be a “good supplement,” while its precise timing and level needed to be discussed in more detail.