Coal-fired thermal power plants in the Western Balkans polluted the air more last year than in 2021. Almost six times more than the permitted values. The latest report by the Bankwatch network of environmental organizations, entitled “Comply or shut down”, states that the increase in pollution applies to all pollutants. The biggest polluter in the region was the Bitola Thermal Power Plant in North Macedonia. The national plan for reducing emissions was a “dead letter” for thermal power plants in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well.
Bogut’s village. Sara Todorović just seemingly carelessly performs everyday tasks. Her company is called Thermal Power Plant Ugljevik.
“Dust, it suffocates us. When we do the laundry, it’s all ash on the laundry. You have to do the washing again afterwards”, she tells.
In addition to floating particles, Sara also inhaled part of over 85 thousand tons of sulfur dioxide, which was released by the thermal power plant last year. Like her husband Pero.
“Stink, acid. Sulfur, carbon dioxide, there’s nothing there. There’s everything. Noise. Dust,” states Pero Todorović.
It was supposed to be different. The Bankwatch report confirms that the Ugljevik Thermal Power Plant did not activate the expensive desulfurization system that would have significantly reduced harmful emissions. They don’t seem to be in a hurry.
“We are planning, especially from the capital overhaul in 2025 and the revitalization that will be ready, to increase the power of Thermal Power Plant Ugljevik so that it can recover the costs that are really enormous, as far as the desulfurization itself is concerned. Namely, when everything is added up, it is some about twenty million costs,” claims the executive director for production and development of the Ugljevik Mine and Thermal Power Plant, Milutin Tasovac.
“There is no responsibility for the health of the population, and the culprits are on paper. You can see which plants are the ones that pollute the most and that is the whole problem, that no one bears responsibility, after all,” says Dragan Ostić from the Center for the Environment Banja Luka.
The Western Balkans have long been a black hole in Europe due to pollution from thermal power plants.
National plans to reduce emissions, in force since 2018, have been repeatedly violated. Last year, five or six times more harmful particles were emitted than allowed. The energy community has sanctioned certain countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, but the effects are absent. The next step is measures to stop burning coal, which are an integral part of the National Energy Climate Plan (NECP).
“It is obvious that the National Energy and Climate Plan is being worked on more under, conditionally speaking, the pressure to do it than we have a sincere desire to really work on the energy transition in the country”, says Damir Miljević from the Center for Sustainable Energy Transition RESET.
“First of all, the plan refers to the determination of emission targets, the reduction of emissions compared to 1990, the target for renewable energy sources and energy efficiency,” explains Admir Softić, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Presented in April and corrected in the meantime, Bosnia and Herzegovina sent the National Energy and Climate Plan to the Energy Community on Friday, we learn from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations. After the opinion of the Energy Community and public discussion, the NECP should be adopted by the Council of Ministers by the end of the year.
