LIFTING EUROPE’S DARK CLOUD

Lifting Europe's Dark Cloud is a report published in October 2016 by a coalition of environmental and health organizations. It analyzes the health impacts of air pollution from coal-fired power plants in Europe and evaluates the effectiveness of the EU's Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) and the proposed revised Large Combustion Plants Best Available Techniques Reference Document (LCP BREF). The report argues that current pollution limits are undermined by widespread 'derogations' (exemptions) and that adopting stricter, proven Best Available Techniques (BAT) would significantly reduce premature deaths and healthcare costs across the continent.

• Implementing the proposed BREF limits would significantly reduce the health burden of coal power in Europe, lowering annual premature deaths from 22,900 to 8,900 by mid-2021. This transition would also prevent 7,300 new cases of chronic bronchitis, 336,500 days of children suffering from asthma symptoms, and over 4 million lost working days, reducing the annual health bill from 63.2 billion to 24.3 billion euros.
• The most stringent scenario, based on the lower end of the Best Available Techniques (BAT) range, could further reduce annual premature deaths to 2,600. This would also lower new chronic bronchitis cases to 1,200, asthma symptom days for children to 54,900, and slash annual health costs to 7.1 billion euros.
• More than half of European coal power plants (56%) are currently exempt from the 2016 Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) limits through 'derogations'. These plants were responsible for 13,700 premature deaths in 2013, representing 60% of all coal-related deaths in Europe.
• The Transitional National Plan (TNP) is identified as the most harmful derogation, delaying full IED compliance until July 2020. It uses a tradable 'emissions bubble' system that allows plants to pollute at higher levels. 99 out of 257 coal plants use the TNP, accounting for 9,170 of the 22,900 premature deaths reported in 2013.
• Delays in adopting the revised BREF limits, which should have been implemented in August 2014, have resulted in 5,600 unnecessary deaths and a health bill exceeding 15.6 billion euros. The report notes that proposed BREF limits would save 2,500 lives annually compared to the existing 2016 IED limits.
• Coal power plants contribute disproportionately to industrial pollution in the EU. In 2013, they were responsible for 52% of all reported sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions, 40% of nitrogen oxides (NOx), and 37% of dust emissions from industry, despite making up only 0.5% of IED-regulated installations.
• In the United Kingdom, the TNP derogation allowed the RWE Aberthaw plant in Wales to set a NOx emissions ceiling of 27,843 tonnes, based on 1,200mg/Nm³, which is six times the IED limit of 200mg/Nm³. Although the European Court of Justice later ruled this illegal, the plant emitted 11,003 tonnes of NOx in the first half of 2016.
• The report highlights that six countries have 100% of their coal fleet under derogation, meaning no coal plants in Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, or the UK were required to meet IED limits at the time of writing.
• Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) is identified as a key technique for reducing NOx emissions, particularly for lignite plants. While standard for hard coal plants, only one lignite plant in the EU (Sostanj 6 in Slovenia) had SCR operational at the time of the report. Implementing SCR could reduce NOx emissions to 40mg/Nm³, far below the EU average of 330mg/Nm³.
• The report concludes that truly eliminating the 'dark cloud' requires a complete phase-out of coal power in favor of renewable energy and reduced consumption, noting that coal plants produce 18% of all of Europe's greenhouse gases.

APA

Schaible, C., Lazarus, A., Jones, D., Flisowska, J., Gogolewska, J., & Urbaniak, D. (2016). LIFTING EUROPE’S DARK CLOUD. Ember. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2020/03/Lifting-europes-dark-cloud-2016.pdf

Chicago

Schaible, Christian, Anton Lazarus, Dave Jones, Joanna Flisowska, Julia Gogolewska, and Darek Urbaniak. LIFTING EUROPE’S DARK CLOUD. Ember, 2016. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2020/03/Lifting-europes-dark-cloud-2016.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Schaible |first1=Christian |last2=Lazarus |first2=Anton |last3=Jones |first3=Dave |last4=Flisowska |first4=Joanna |last5=Gogolewska |first5=Julia |last6=Urbaniak |first6=Darek |title=LIFTING EUROPE’S DARK CLOUD |publisher=Ember |date=October 2016 |url=https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2020/03/Lifting-europes-dark-cloud-2016.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{schaible2016lifting, author = {Schaible, Christian and Lazarus, Anton and Jones, Dave and Flisowska, Joanna and Gogolewska, Julia and Urbaniak, Darek}, title = {{LIFTING EUROPE’S DARK CLOUD}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2016}, month = oct, url = {https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2020/03/Lifting-europes-dark-cloud-2016.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }