Micronesia, part of the Oceania group of islands threatened by rising sea levels due to climate change, has slammed revamp plans for a coal-fired Czech plant as not good enough, the environment ministry said Friday.
Micronesian environment official Andrew Yatilman said in a letter to the Czech ministry that renovation plans for the Prunerov II heating plant would not reduce carbon dioxide emissions sufficiently.
It said the Czech state-run CEZ energy group would not use the so-called best available technology (BAT).
"CEZ's current renovation plans regarding the Prunerov II power plant would lower CO2 emissions from 7.1 million tonnes to 4.1 million tonnes of CO2 per annum; but if they used BAT, it would be lowered further to 3.8 million tonnes per annum," Yatilman said.
Over a period of 25 years the difference will amount to nine million tonnes of CO2 emissions, he said.
"As far as we know, the Prunerov II power plant is the 18th biggest source of greenhouse gases in the European Union. This single power plant emits approximately 40 times more C02 than the entire Federated States of Micronesia," Yatilman noted.
But Yatilman conceded that the plant is estimated to be responsible for 0.021 percent of annual global CO2 emissions.
"Although we are aware that greenhouse gas emissions produced solely by the Prunerov II power plant will not directly cause sea-level rise, change weather patterns and increase storms, there are approximately only 5,000 such power plants which contribute to total global CO2 emissions," Yatilman said.
Czech environment ministry spokeswoman Jarmila Krebsova told AFP: "Our position will be included in our final report on the renovation project."
Share This Article With Planet Earth
