prijava
BANJA LUKA, December 11 (FENA) - Total emissions of sulfur dioxide from coal-fired power plants in Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia in 2018 were six times higher than allowed, shows a new study released yesterday by the European Network CEE Bankwatch.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, SO2 emissions were as much as nine times the emission limit value allowed in the National Emission Reduction Plan approved by the Energy Community Secretariat, the Banja Luka Environment Center said.
“All countries in the Western Balkans are members of the Energy Community, and have therefore been obliged to reduce pollution from thermal power plants by 2018, in accordance with the Large Combustion Plants Directive.
However, none of the countries that drafted the National Emission Reduction Plan complied with their 2018 national total emission limit values, according to a report presented yesterday in Brussels at a meeting with members of the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the media,” it is said in a statement from this environmental association.
The countries of the Energy Community have had 12 years to comply with the limit values, so it is incomprehensible that the authorities in the region have neglected this problem. Considering the health damage that air pollution causes, investing in reducing emissions or shutting down thermal power plants is not just a matter of legal obligation, but a moral one as well, concluded Ioana Ciuta, Energy Coordinator of CEE Bankwatch and one of the report's authors.
Majda Ibraković from the Environmental Center Banja Luka pointed out that this report is another indicator of the high degree of ignoring the problem of pollution, in this case air pollution, which is the price we are already paying.
“It is important that MEPs are now additionally aware of the concrete situation with thermal power plants in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It should be emphasized that they were especially moved by the personal testimonies of people whose health is severely threatened by the work of mines and thermal power plants in our country, who also attended this meeting,” said Majda Ibraković.
(FENA) S. R.
