Swedish state energy company Vattenfall plans to sell off its German lignite operations because it says they are incompatible with the company’s climate change goals.

But Greenpeace said the sale of the coal mines and power plants, which includes the fourth largest CO2 emitting power station in Europe, would be an abdication of responsibility and would simply allow Vattenfall to meet its emissions targets without actually reducing pollution.



Vattenfall’s annual German emissions are 72.2m tonnes of CO2, more than the whole of Sweden. Much of this is accounted for by its three massive plants and five open-cut mines in the country’s south east.

On Thursday, the company released a statement that said: “The board of directors has decided that Vattenfall will explore options for creating a sustainable, new ownership structure for the lignite operations.”

A spokesman acknowledged that the sale would have no overall effect on emissions, but would help Vattenfall achieve its own carbon reduction targets.

“This wouldn’t solve any CO2 problems in the whole, but it would for Vattenfall,” he said.

The spokesmansaid shutting down the operations was “not an option” because Germany’s large renewable energy sector was underpinned by coal power when wind and solar production slackened.

Greenpeace Sweden’s programme manager Annika Jacobson said: “We are not suggesting that they should stop the mines from one day to the next. But it would be much more economically positive if they phased out the lignite operations and invested in renewables in Germany instead.”

She said the sale was a “panic solution” in order to reach Vattenfall’s emissions targets. Jacobson said the government, which owns Vattenfall and can broadly direct company policy, should not allow the company to shift responsibility for the emissions elsewhere. “Vattenfall is the most powerful tool that they have in their toolbox to show climate leadership,” said Jacobson.

She said the Green Party, which formed a coalition government with other left wing parties after the election in September, was now in an uncomfortable position because it had campaigned against coal. Prior to the election, the Greens told the Guardian: “Any government taking responsibility for the climate must stop these operations [rather than sell them].”

Lignite is the most polluting form of coal and Vattenfall is one of Europe’s largest lignite burners. It is an uncomfortable image problem for a company which is trying to sell itself at home and abroad as a leader in clean energy.

Regardless of the sale, in order to maintain supply to its plants the company says three of its German mines need to be expanded and local villages will be destroyed to make way. In August, thousands of protesters created a human chain between villages mooted for relocation.