Serbia | New Coal Power Plant Would Threaten Health and Lives of Thousands

This week, Serbia reiterated its announcement to construct the Kostolac B3 coal power plant – a 350 megawatt close to the Romanian border which will primarily use the lignite form of coal. 

The total worth of the project is 610 million EUR of which the Serbian Government committed to provide 20% while the rest would be provided by the Export-Import Bank of China with a 20 year loan.

Ultimately, this announcement means the people of Serbia will, through their taxes, fund a project that will gravely impact their health as well as create uncontrollable additional economic and health costs. One of the world’s most authoritative medical journals, the Lancet [1], recommends that all countries phase out of the most polluting form of fossil fuel, coal.

According to HEAL calculations, 1,269 people would die a premature death due to pollution from Kostolac B3 during its lifetime, assuming it will run for 45 years. That equals direct additional health costs between 462 million and 1.33 billion EUR. On top of that, every additional year Kostolac B3 would run would lead to 28 premature deaths with an additional societal cost of 10-29 million EUR.

All of this is not even taking into account the contribution Kostolac B3 would make to climate change and the health impacts and costs associated with that.

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