Micronesia targets Czech energy giant

The detritus of a coal power plant in the northeast of the Czech Republic is sullying a South Pacific haven more than 7,000 miles away, according to an official complaint filed by the Federated States of Micronesia.

"The Federated States of Micronesia is seriously endangered by the impacts of climate change, including the flooding of its entire territory and eventual disappearance of a portion of its state," wrote Andrew Yatilman, director of Micronesia's Office of Environment and Emergency Management, in a document filed with the Czech Republic's Environment Ministry Dec. 3.

The unprecedented complaint from a country outside of Europe has put the international spotlight on energy giant ČEZ, which plans to refit the Prunéřov coal-fired power plant to boost efficiency. However, the increase would still be insufficient to avoid disastrous effects on the tiny island chain, which has requested a trans-boundary environmental impact assessment from the Environment Ministry, a process intended to settle disputes between neighboring countries. Should they succeed, Micronesia's action would create a precedent for smaller countries that have more to lose from climate change.

The battle over ČEZ's role in CO2 emissions and climate change has heated up in past weeks as the Czech Environmental Law Service (EPS) announced Jan. 17 plans to file a lawsuit against ČEZ for not supplying adequate information about its refitting plans. The organization thus joins Greenpeace, the Environment Ministry and the Federated States of Micronesia in a three-pronged international legal investigation against the company.

ČEZ's is investing 25 billion euros ($35.25 billion/647.5 billion Kč) to increase the efficiency of the Prunéřov coal power plant - the 18th-largest source of CO2 emissions in Europe - to comply with more stringent European regulations handed down from the Copenhagen conference and to allow the plant to continue operating for the next 25 years. The plant is currently slated to close in 2020, but a refitting would extend its operations until 2035. The plant releases 10 million tons of CO2 per year, or more than 40 times the entire annual emissions of Micronesia, according to EPS. ČEZ's current renovation plans include the modernization of three of the five blocks of the power plant, which would lower emissions to 4.1 million tons of CO2 annually.

The ministry is expected to give a ruling in early February regarding the efficiency of the plant, which has been a subject of debate. ČEZ plans to refit the plant to reach 38 percent emissions efficiency, while Greenpeace and Micronesia call for 42 percent efficiency, which ČEZ spokesman Otto Schnepp called "physically impossible."

"Does ČEZ want to install [the power plant] with higher efficiency? Yes, if it were technically possible," he said. "For us, this is not a 'holy war.' We are happy when we can produce more electricity."

Petra Roubíčková, spokeswoman for the Environment Ministry, disagreed, saying, "Obviously, 42 percent efficiency does exist and would be the best possible outcome."

Power plant efficiency is measured by the amount of energy produced by a specific fuel versus the amount of energy needed to produce it. Critics of ČEZ say the company refuses to use the best available technology (BAT) to maximize the plant's efficiency - albeit at a higher cost. According to the EPS, if ČEZ used BAT, efficiency would be increased to 42 percent, which would lower emissions to 3.8 million tons of CO2 annually - a reduction of up to 9 million fewer tons of CO2 released over the lifespan of the plant.

Schnepp called such accusations "absolute nonsense," saying, "Environmental organizations either deliberately or through ignorance mix together different concepts, and present to the public that ČEZ is saving money installing an ineffective energy source."

"This is obviously not true," he added. "It is in ČEZ's interest that the installed technology should maximize efficiency because it leads to a more effective production of electricity and heat."

In the most visible of a growing list of adversaries against the Prunéřov plant, Greenpeace hosted a protest outside ČEZ's Prague offices Jan. 20, with replicas of smokestacks and activists spraying coal dust on the snow. Ben Jasper of Greenpeace made the organization's demands clear.

"We call for decommissioning of the plant by 2015 and a global phase-out of coal power," he said. "We demand that, if the plant continues to operate, it must employ the best available technology at minimum. ČEZ is playing lots of games to avoid employing BAT, but they can't justify their actions."

EPS's lawsuit, unlike complaints from Micronesia and Greenpeace, contests the legality of ČEZ's methods in carrying out the planned upgrade of the plant and their refusal to provide details about the plant despite several requests, said EPS lawyer Jiří Nezhyba, thus adding a legal angle to a case that has, until now, concerned environmental ethics.

"We want ČEZ to give us the requested information. We are aware the analysis might contain some trade secrets. Despite this fact, according to previous judgments by the Supreme Administrative Court, it is necessary to provide the requested information, while making possible trade secrets in the documents unreadable," he said.

Nezhyba went on to call attention to the significance of the international case against Prunéřov, saying, "If Micronesia succeeds with Prunéřov, you may have a global precedent that could inspire other countries most seriously affected by the impact of climate change."

However, Schnepp said ČEZ has violated no laws in withholding information about the plant because the company has already given "all the documentation, including a study of the project's effects on the environment."

"What EPS also wants is our internal economic assessment of the buildings - nothing that would concern ecology - because, in these internal analyses, we use our own internal metrics. Return on equity, price prediction, etc. - we cannot provide this," he added.

- Petr Cibulka Jr. contributed to this report.

Stephan Delbos can be reached at
sdelbos@praguepost.com