News

WWF file complaint to EC against Germany for neglecting key Carbon Storage Directive provision

Publish date: January 14, 2010

Written by: Veronica Webster

BRUSSELS – The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the environmental NGO, has filed an official complaint at the European Commission against Germany due to its failure to first verify the readiness for CO2 capture, transport and storage (CCS) of a new coal-fired power plant in the region of Baden Wurttemburg.

The 900 megawatt (MW) plant is majority owned by German utilities RWE and ENBW.

The complaint states that approval for the coal plant near the city of Mannheim should not have been given because the local authorities did not assess the possibility of either a pipeline to transport CO2 from the site or of a suitable geological storage site for the emissions.

Under a revision of the EU’s Large Combustion Plant Directive that entered into force in June 2009, member states are required, prior to approving any new project, to ensure that companies planning to build new power plants with output of above 300 MW, assess certain conditions for the possibility of introducing CO2 capture, transport and storage (CCS).

“This case will be important not just for this project but for the dozens of other new unabated coal-fired power plants still being planned across Europe. The increasing scale and urgency of the climate crisis means that there is no time to waste in cutting our emissions. Without a clear requirement to prepare for and then use CCS, new unabated coal-fired power plants are totally unacceptable,” said Mark Johnston, WWF’s coordinator for power plant CO2 standards, the WWF press release.