By Marek Strzelecki and Kate Abnett
WARSAW (Reuters) – European Union countries are considering a proposal that would let member states prolong capacity mechanism support for coal plants by ducking CO2 emission limits, a draft document seen by Reuters showed.
EU countries’ ambassadors will discuss the draft proposal on Friday, before their energy ministers vote on it on Monday.
The EU sets CO2 emission limits for capacity mechanisms, to attempt to steer countries towards supporting cleaner generation in their energy mix. The limit is 550 grams of CO2 of fossil fuel origin per kilowatt hour of electricity produced.
The document said capacity mechanisms already in place before July 2019 would be allowed to dodge this limit for a limited period if certain other conditions are met.
There was a majority coalition backing the move, which would allow Poland to prolong its support scheme for coal-fired power plants, the country’s climate minister told Reuters on Thursday.
Poland relies on coal for around 70% of its electricity generation. Plants receive state support for providing baseload power but that is set to end in 2025 when tighter EU emissions limits kick in for power plants receiving such support, putting generators out of the money.
“I’ve done a lot of work and had good talks in recent days and I’m optimistic about Monday. It’s not just Poland that needs capacity market,” climate minister Anna Moskwa said in an interview.
“We’ve built a bloc supporting this and today this is a coalition that gives us majority.”Moskwa did not list the countries that would back the proposal.
“That’s an environmental scandal,” one EU country diplomat said of the proposal.
(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki and Kate Abnett; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
