
BEIRUT - In the last decade, Denmark has promoted itself as a green frontrunner. But the investigation shows how Denmark is not only exporting windmills and green know-how, it has also supported and built polluting power plants outside its own borders.
This has also been the case in Lebanon where the Danish billionaire group Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractors (BWSC) with help from Danish Export Credit Fund (EKF) and the Danish Embassy in Lebanon has built two black power plants in the Lebanese cities Jiyeh and Zouk Mikael.
The power plants are running on heavy fuel oil which is a residual product from the refining of oil. Experts call it one of the worst fuels in the world because of its many harmful effects on both humans and the environment.
This is mainly due to the combustion of heavy fuel oil. In the process heavy fuel oil emits huge amounts of CO2, nitrogen oxides, soot and sulfur dioxide - all dangerous gasses that pollute the environment and cause diseases among locals in the two Lebanese cities.
Furthermore the emissions from the power plants has been the direct cause in making the nearby tourist town of Jounieh the fifth most polluted city in the MENA-region and the 23rd most polluted city in the world according to a Greenpeace report from 2018 - two years after the danish power plants were built.
ONLINE :
- Two Danish power plants contribute in making a Lebanese tourist gem one of the most air-polluted cities in the world - Danwatch (Denmark), 12/05/2022
- Libanons turistby ramt af dansk dobbeltmoral om klima og miljø - Politiken (Denmark), 12/05/2022
- الازدواجيّة الدنماركيّة: طاقة متجدّدة نظيفة في بلادهم ومعامل فيول ملوّثة في بلادنا! - Daraj (Lebanon), 17/05/2022
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