Bełchatów's power plant owned by PGE, the largest lignite-based power plant in our country, for another year in a row was ranked first in the ranking of the largest climate polluters in the European Union, prepared by the Ember Climate think tank based on data from the emissions trading system EU ETS. In 2020, the Bełchatów Power Plant emitted over 30 million metric tonnes of CO2. It's only 8 percent less than in 2019. In 2018, the Bełchatów power plant emitted 38.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which is 2 percent higher than in 2017

The next positions are taken by the German power plants Neurath and Jänschwalde, owned by the energy companies RWE and LEAG. However, both of these power plants emitted a total of a similar amount of carbon dioxide to that emitted in the same period by the power plant in Bełchatów itself.

This is the first year when the ranking includes not two, but three Polish power plants. In addition to the power plant in Bełchatów, this year's list also includes power plants in Kozienice (owned by Enea) and in Opole (owned by PGE).

The energy producer from Kozienice, which emitted 10.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide last year, moved up from eighth to sixth place in the ranking, with practically no decrease in emissions compared to 2019.

The situation of the power plant in Opole is even worse. This plant not only joined the top ten largest CO2 emitters in the EU ranking (taking 8th position) but was also the only company out of the ten to record an increase in emissions last year – and a significant one by as much as 38.1 percent, ending the year with 9.7 tonnes of emitted carbon dioxide.

(EURACTIV.pl)