NGOs, industry call for EU policy to retire dirty power capacity

The EU’s energy market proposals should introduce a programme to retire surplus power resources starting with the dirtiest, least flexible sources, NGOs and industry groups have said.

The programme should lead to the complete phase out of coal in the EU by 2030 to slash emissions from the power system and tackle the problem of excess generation capacity, they argued in a letter to the European Commissioners in charge of the Energy Union strategy on Thursday.