Greece must end its reliance on dirty coal | Letters

It isn't a great surprise to learn that a director of Greece's Public Power Corporation believes in exemptions for lignite - an especially polluting type of coal burnt at Greek power plants (Letters, theguardian.com, 24 November). However, the claim that Greece is "among the best performers in emission reductions" must not go unchallenged.

In a recent report, Lifting Europe's Dark Cloud: How cutting coal saves lives, we revealed how Greek lignite plants, responsible for hundreds of premature deaths and thousands of cases of respiratory illness every year, have in fact been granted special exemptions to EU limits set in the industrial emissions directive. As a result, when it comes to emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO₂), nitrous oxides (NO_x), dust and mercury, Greek plants are undoubtedly among the worst performers in Europe.