Europe moves to reduce pollutants

By Joshua Chaffin in Luxembourg
Published: June 26 2009 03:38

Environment ministers agreed on Thursday on a sweeping plan to reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide, dust and other pollutants spewed out by thousands of industrial facilities across Europe.
The legislation would reduce emissions of such pollutants by nearly a third by 2020, according to the European Commission. The measures would save up to €27bn ($38bn, £23bn) in annual health costs and spare thousands of lives by improving the quality of soil, air and water.

European Union member states will negotiate with the European parliament before the proposals can become law.
The plan does not cover carbon dioxide emissions, which are the subject of separate negotiations.
“If you compare 10 years ago with the 10 years ahead of us, we will have a completely different situation,” said Andreas Calgren, environment minister of Sweden, an early proponent of such measures.
Ministers approved the package by a narrow majority after a year of discussions that exposed sharp divisions between the likes of Sweden, Denmark and Germany, which have stringent pollution targets, and the UK and Poland, which pleaded for greater flexibility to accommodate ageing coal-fired power plants.
The legislation tightens emissions limits for certain industrial sectors and sets new inspection standards. At its heart is a requirement that operators of power generators, refineries and other big combustion plants bring facilities up to the best available techniques by the end of 2020. New plants will have to achieve that from 2012.
The UK succeeded in pushing back the deadline for full compliance to 2020 – four years later than originally proposed. But the delay could become an issue with the parliament.
● The European Commission on Thursday announced plans to contribute up to €50m to help China build a facility to test carbon capture and storage technology .
The Commission said the investment illustrated the EU’s commitment to speeding the transfer of green technology to developing nations to fight global warming.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009