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• |Estonia
• |Environment

Estonia’s main environmental issues related to energy are air pollution and consequences of oil shale extraction, combustion and deposit of ashes. Further, the extraction of peat from wetlands for use as fuel as well as for export for gardening purposes is threatening wetland habitats. Peat is used for energy purposes as milled peat, sod peat and peat briquettes. In 2001, 5,237,000 t of peat were produced. The total capacity of peat boilers in 2001 was 60 MW, with an average capacity of 1 MW, the total heat production from peat was 164 GWh.

Oil shale may be responsible for as much as 80% of the total harmful emissions in Estonia, when taking into account both its mining and utilization. When oil shale is combusted in a power plant, CO2 is generated not only from the organic carbon, but also from decomposition of the carbonate component of the oil shale as well. The overall carbon emission factor (CEF) for oil shale is about 29 metric tons of carbon per terajoule; without decomposition of the carbonate, the CEF would be about 22 metric tons per terajoule. [ WFB CIA, US DoE FE, EU Commission ]

Estonia has signed (1998), and ratified (2002) the Kyoto Protocol. According to the protocol Estonia committed itself to reduce GHG emissions by 8 % in the period of 2008-2012, compared to the emissions in 1990. However in 2005 Estonia registered a reduction in GHG emissions by 52.6 %, refering to the emissions in 1990 (in total numbers 43 584 ktoe in 1990, 20 658 ktoe in 2005.) The significant decrease was driven by the decreasing energy demand after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. [Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications]

Air pollution

The air is polluted with sulfur dioxide from oil-shale burning power plants in northeast; however, the amount of pollutants emitted to the air have fallen steadily, the emissions of 2000 were 4.6 times smaller than in 1980.