After examining the harmful effects that extracting and burning coal have on human health and the environment, Greenpeace Bulgaria has drawn attention to the support that the coal sector receives. The focus of this report is the direct and indirect ways the state supports, keeps and prolongs the existence of a sector that belongs to the past.
The state provides legal, administrative and economical breaks and support to the coal sector that allow for it to stay competitive given the current market conditions. The state loses millions of leva every year from uncollected concession payments, not imposing excise duty for domestic coal use, long-term purchase power agreements for electrify from coal-fired power plants. At the same time it provides free CO2 allowances to the coal power plants, facilitates the land seizure for coal extraction and allows coal companies to delay payments to the social security system.
In this report we examine a short list of the direct and indirect support that the coal dinosaurs receive today in Bulgaria. This support must stop. Greenpeace Bulgaria calls for state policies that will bring the energy sector out of the dark ages of the fossil fuels and brings it closer to the real, available and accessible innovative energy solutions that the current 21st century offers.
