News
Publish date: March 4, 2009
News
The signatories tabled an amendment to introduce an emission limit of 350 grams CO2 per kilowatt-hour electricity produced for any new power plants being permitted from now onwards.
This would effectively ban any coal-fired power plants and older (single-cycle) gas-fired power plants without CO2 capture and storage (CCS). The limit, however, would only be applicable from 2020 in order to give time to plants to install CCS after the technology is expected to be proven by 2015. The limit would be introduced for existing power plants from 2025.
The amendments are being voted on in the European Parliament plenary session on March 12th. The President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering can still rule the amendments inadmissible before the plenary vote.
However, it will be less legitimate to block the amendments now that they have mustered strong support amongst MEPs.
The amendments were drafted by Bellona Europa together with other NGOs and Members of European Parliament. The emission performance standard was also discussed in a Parliamentary hearing in the European Parliament this week.
Throughout the past year, our mission at the Bellona Environmental Transparency Center has focused on two key, but intertwined issues—nuclear and radiation safety as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on, and the worldwide influence of Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, which itself is actively involved in the war and has participated in the occupation of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant.
At the beginning of the year, reports in the German and Russian press suggested an approximate 70% increase in uranium imports from Russia to Germany in 2024. But does this reflect broader European trends? It does not. Overall, imports of uranium and nuclear fuel from Russia to Western countries actually dropped sharply in 2024. Unlike the situation in Germany, this is already an established trend.
A Lingen, Germany plant could begin producing nuclear fuel in cooperation with a subsidiary of Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear corporation, which is directly involved in the war in Ukraine and occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.