Press Release, December 3, 2007
Coalition against Bayer Dangers (Germany)
Coal-fired power plants on Bayer´s sites criticized
“Stop Climate-Killers / Misleading Data on Emissions
Germany‚s E.ON announced last week that it would build a 1,100 megawatt power station on Bayer´s site at Antwerp. The plant would be Belgium‘s largest power station, accounting for about 6 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. The electricity would partly be used by Bayer for chemical production.
Against fierce resistance from local environmental groups and the Greens Bayer is also involved in building a 750 megawatt power station in Krefeld/Germany. The plant would annually emit 4.4 million tons of CO2 and 4,000 tons of both sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. It would be built by the company Trianel and be operated by Bayer. Local protesters even went on a five week hunger-strike to prevent the plant.
A third project is located within Bayer´s plant at Brunsbuettel where a 800 megawatt power station is planned. All three projects would rely on coal imported from overseas. With an efficiency of about 46% more than half of the energy would evaporate. Since power plants have a lifespan of up to 60 years these decisions would establish a climate-damaging production of electricity for decades.
Only two weeks ago Bayer´s CEO Werner Wenning stated: “We at Bayer take climate change very seriously and regard it as an ecological and economic challenge. We want to set new standards. Philipp Mimkes from the Coalition against BAYER Dangers responds: “Burning coal is the dirtiest way of producing electricity. These projects totally contradict Bayer´s claims of being a climate-friendly company. How can Bayer set new standards when the companies´ energy suppliers use stone age technology? We demand a stop to these coal plants!“.
Dirk Jansen from the environmental organisation BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany) adds: “Producing electricity by burning coal is the worst way with regard to climate protection. We reject the plans of German companies to export such inefficient power stations. Coalition against BAYER Dangers and BUND describe E.ON´s claim as “misleading that the plant in Antwerp would save emissions by 25% since no old stations are planned to be cut off.
Only this summer – after a two year campaign by the Coalition against BAYER Dangers and negative reports in the media – Bayer published figures of their total CO2 emissions. Including the output of their energy suppliers these emissions amount to 7.9 million tons of CO2. Before that Bayer reported a supposed “70% reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. In reality this decline existed for the most part on paper only since it resulted mainly from the outsourcing of Bayer´s energy supply and from sales of two daughter companies.
More information: Bayer`s Disinformation on Climate Protection