EU states near acid pollution deal

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European environment ministers could agree to tighten up widely flouted acid pollution laws this week after rapid progress in recent negotiations over industrial emissions brought a compromise within reach.

"There has been significant progress in recent weeks, and member states are taking a cooperative approach," Jos Delbeke, number two at the European Commission's environment unit, told Reuters. "It is possible there will be a deal on Thursday."

The complex Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) weaves together seven existing air quality laws, including the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control directive (IPPC) and the Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD).

These seven existing laws contain so many opt-outs that many of the 52,000 relevant European installations have managed to avoid cleaning up acidifying pollutants, such as sulphur and nitrogen oxides, that damage human health, soil and water quality.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, estimates that if its air quality laws are fully implemented they could prevent about 13,000 premature deaths a year.

It proposed new limits in 2007 to nitrogen and sulphur emissions from power plants by 2016, with a range of standards across other sectors such as steel and refining.

But after months of wrangling between EU member states, industry looks set to get some easier alternatives.

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The EU's Czech Presidency has brokered a deal that phases in the rules for large power plants across an extra four years, and countries including Poland and Britain say certain plants should be given a further four.

According to a group of nine countries that are heavy users of coal -- such as Britain, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece -- the compromise deal is too costly and in some cases could harm energy security, negotiating documents show.

Britain says the forced closure of plants will contribute to a gap in generating capacity around 2015.

Poland fears the laws will impact its communist-era district heating schemes, which could in turn force people to heat their homes by burning coal, worsening air quality further.

But seven northern European nations -- Denmark, Germany, Ireland, France, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands -- say the deal offers too much flexibility and too many exemptions to industry at the risk of damaging the environment.

Any deal between environment ministers on Thursday would then have to be approved by the European Parliament, which voted in March for an absolute bottom line or "safety net" from 2016.

Parliament could also insist the directive curbs carbon dioxide (CO2) for the largest coal-fired power stations, after changes to parliamentary rules that prevented similar attempts to introduce CO2 curbs in January and March.

"The big missed opportunity in this new law so far is not including carbon dioxide limits on the largest installations," said Mark Johnston of campaign group WWF.

"The scale and urgency of the unfolding global climate crisis demands a fresh look at the tools we use to deliver our policy goals," he added.

(Reporting by Pete Harrison, editing by Anthony Barker)