Emissions limits

Solving the climate crisis requires us to use both the stick and the carrot. One kind of stick is to set an Emission Performance Standard (EPS), a method of banning reckless manufacturing processes. Thanks to this type of regulation, the emission of sulphur dioxide in EU countries, which primarily came from large coal-fired power stations and caused acid rain, has been reduced by more than 70 percent in the course of 20 years. In the EU and the USA there is now talk of introducing a similar emissions limit with respect to CO₂ from power stations. In Norway, 99 percent of electricity comes from hydro-electric schemes, but large parts of Europe depend on burning coal and gas to generate electricity.

Power stations are responsible for almost a third of the EU’s greenhouse-gas emissions. In the EU, Bellona is striving to introduce an emission limit of 150 grams CO₂ per kilowatt hour of electricity produced. In practice, this would mandate CO₂ capture and storage in coal and gas power stations. The limit could initially be set a little higher and apply only to new power stations. But over the next 20 years, all fossil-fuel-fired power generation without CO₂ capture and storage must be phased out in Europe.