Western Balkans exceeded the SO2 limits multiple times in 2020 - Pollution from thermal power plants in Serbia higher than from all 221 plants in the entire EU

The legal limits on sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants across the Western Balkans have been exceeded multiple times in 2020, according to a new report by CEE Bankwatch and the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

The document, prepared in cooperation with the Center for Ecology and Energy and the Center for the Environment, states that the expected impact of reduced economic activity, due to COVID-19, on the reduction of this pollution did not occur. Thermal power plants that are covered by the NERP in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo emitted about 6.4 times more SO2 in 2020.

The report states that last year, the total emissions of SO2 of coal-fired TPPs in the Western Balkans have been 2.5 times higher than the emissions from all coal-fired power plants in the EU.

Presented data also showed that in 2020, Serbian thermal power plants covered by the NERP had the highest SO2 emissions in total, with 333,602 tons, and the second was Bosnia and Herzegovina with 220,411 tons.

- SO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants in Serbia exceeded emissions from all 221 plants in the entire European Union in 2020 - the document states.

The absolute regional record belongs to Ugljevik, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with 107,402 tons of SO2 last year, which exceeded the sum of regional national limits.

TPP Ugljevik in BiH, and Kostolac B1 and B2 in Serbia, emitted almost 12 times more than the allowed values, despite the fact that they had built-in desulphurization equipment.

Imports of electricity to the European Union from the Western Balkans account for only 0.3% of the Union`s total electricity consumption, but the SO2 emissions associated with these imports account for 50% of total emissions from all EU plants in 2020.

- This is because the production of electricity in the Western Balkans contains about 300 times more SO2 than in the EU - the report states.

CEE Bankwatch

Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air CREA

TPP Ugljevik

Kostolac

pollution

SO2

Western Balkans

thermal power plants