Quantification of environmental and health external costs attributable to open-pit mining of brown coal at Bílina and ČSA coal mines and usage of brown coal in combustion processes to generate electricity and heat
Abstract
The study quantifies environmental and health impacts attributable to revoking the territorial ecological restrictions on open-pit mining of brown coal in the Northern Bohemia mining area, following four options as proposed in 2015 by the Czech government. These impacts are attributable to brown coal mining and burning brown coal in combustion processes to generate electricity and heat and are relevant to the area of the Czech Republic only.
Environmental and health impacts are monetarized and mean the external cost from mining and usage of brown coal. External cost of not revoking the territorial ecological restrictions (option 1) declines from 1,200 mil.
CZK per annum to zero in 2038, when the mining of brown coal is terminated. For the whole period 2015-2050 the external cost reaches 14 billion CZK cumulatively.
Revoking the territorial ecological restrictions at Bílina mine (option 2) increases the external cost by 200 - 500 mil. CZK per annum and by 10 billion CZK cumulatively for the whole period 2015-2050.
Revoking the territorial ecological restrictions at Bílina mine and partly at ČSA mine (option 3) differs from option 2 only during 2024-2033 due to partial revoking the territorial ecological restrictions at ČSA mine, when the external cost increases by additional 700 mil. CZK per annum compared to option 1.
The cumulative external cost is 14 billion CZK higher in option 3 than in option 1. The complete revoking the territorial ecological restrictions (option 4) leads to cumulative external cost higher by 25 billion CZK compared to option 1.
With respect to international pollution transfer and global effects on climate change, the scope of the analysis has crucial role for evaluation of impacts of the national regulation. The underlying scenario of this analysis assumes the impacts on Czech inhabitants only which account for 8-10% of the impacts on the whole EU population.
Impacts on energy mix are analysed by partial equilibrium model TIMES