Poland’s coal-fired power plant tops EU polluters’ index
Bełchatów power plant has once again bagged the first spot in the ranking of the largest carbon dioxide (CO2) producers in the European Union. There are eight power plants on this list, including two from Poland.
The ranking of estimated annual CO2 emissions was prepared by the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E) – Europe’s principal environmental organization – based on official data. In 2019, nine power plants and low-cost airline Ryanair were on the list.
As much as 80 percent of the country’s electricity is coal-powered currently. And the state-owned Bełchatów Power Station in central Poland is the world’s largest lignite-fired power station. It produces 20 percent of the total power generation in Poland. One of the biggest carbon polluters in the world, the plant burns approximately 45 million tonnes of coal each year and has emitted approximately 1bn tonnes of CO2 over the course of its lifetime. It emitted some 32.7 Megatonnes of CO2 in 2019. (1 Mt = 1 million tonnes)
