According to the newspaper De Tijd, Belgium will be one of the European countries with the most carbon-intensive electricity production by 2030. This is evident from a report by the British climate think tank ‘Ember’ after a review of the national energy and climate plans. If the Belgian government will soon close the nuclear power stations and replace them with new gas-fired power stations, our country will be the only country in Europe in the coming decade where the share of fossil power production is increasing. According to N-VA Member of Parliament and energy specialist Bert Wollants, there was nevertheless a valid alternative. He is very hard for the Green minister.
Ember places Belgium in the list of EU countries that are furthest behind. The planned expansion of wind and solar energy in our country also remains well below the European average. According to researchers, the capacity is in any case insufficient to compensate for the loss of nuclear energy.
“It is hardly surprising that Belgium scores so poorly in the new report. The purple-green government has a deep-rooted aversion to nuclear energy and of course everything has to give way to that, ” Bert Wollants responds.
Ember’s conclusions don’t surprise Wollants: “If you absolutely want to close the low-carbon nuclear power plants and instead have CO2-emitting gas plants built that also need financial support to get built… then you get exactly this.”
According to Bert Wollants, a valid alternative was nevertheless possible with keeping the 2 youngest nuclear power stations open. “That way you can avoid at least 25 million tons of CO2 in the next 10 years, CO2 that will now be blown into the air. Common sense was not at hand. Meanwhile, Minister Van der Straeten’s party is trying to placate public opinion with fake news. For example, the new government would focus on more renewable energy, more interconnection capacity and more energy savings. ”
Bert Wollants (N-VA): “It mainly looks like we will be getting the dirtiest power generation in recent energy history”
Incidentally, the first 2 measures have already been decided by the Michel I government. The De Croo government does nothing else there than to implement previously decided policy.
Yet the government profiles itself as “The greenest government ever”. Wollants does not agree with this: “Above all, it looks like we will get the dirtiest power generation in recent energy history. The only relevant decision that the new government has taken in the field of energy production is to confirm the nuclear exit and thus also to confirm the path to use more fossil sources for electricity production. ”
Wollants ends with a sneer at Energy Minister Van der Straeten.
“The fact that she was present at the press conference for the power connection with Germany is still her greatest achievement. Energy saving does not help this file much, because you will mainly be electrifying (heating, transport, etc.) and therefore using more electricity. ”
But according to Ember’s report, that flow is not very clean. “The purest proof that green dogmas do not advance our energy policy, on the contrary,” it sounds very loud.
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