Anti-coal campaign in Kosovo puts focus on health

We blogged last week about a new coal power plant near Pristina in Kosovo, that is due to receive support by the World Bank and may also be a project the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is willing to get behind.

The vital opposition against developing even more coal capacities in Kosovo, a country that already now creates 98 percent of electricity from lignite, is now complemented by a newly launched ad campaign (see the image on the right). It highlights the extraordinary negative health impacts from coal combustion that Kosovars have to endure. (Interestingly, the numbers are taken from a study by the World Bank, the same institution that now could offer millions to perpetuate the situation.)

The campaign reminds us that environmental and climate impacts are not the only reasons to oppose energy production from coal. Neither are meteorological projections into the next decades always required to argue against coal. These health impacts are much more immediate and they bring very concrete and measurable distress for local populations.

The World Bank and the EBRD should heed these figures coming from their own ranks. Coal power does not belong to a future that is worth living in. Now is the time to phase out coal financing.

Here is also one of the three TV ads of the campaign:

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Read the campaign's press release:
Why does Kosovo need a new coal-fired thermal power plant, when other clean sources for generating electricity are available?

See the campaign's TV ads: