British power plants among dirtiest in Europe

By Jennifer Hill

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is home to a third of Europe's dirtiest power stations, according to a report by environmental charity WWF.

It found that 10 of Europe's 30 most climate-polluting power stations were in the UK and the combined carbon dioxide emissions from these 10 rose almost 8 percent last year.

The "dirty thirty" -- all of which are coal-fired -- were responsible for 393 million tonnes of CO2 last year, equal to some 10 percent of all EU carbon dioxide emissions.

Germany also has 10 of Europe's most polluting power stations, followed by Poland with four.

The largest polluter in Britain was the Drax power station in North Yorkshire, operated by Drax Power.

It is twice the size of any other British power station and released some 22.76 million tonnes of CO2 in 2006, up 9.6 percent on the previous year.

Second and third places went to Scottish Power's Longannet station in Fife and EDF Energy's Cottam station in Nottinghamshire.

They emitted more than 10 million tonnes of CO2 each in 2006 -- 10.13 million and 10.03 million respectively -- and also clocked up the largest increases in emissions.