US power plants world's worst polluters: Report

WASHINGTON: America's power plants are among the leading global sources of carbon emission than the entire economies of Russia, India, Japan or any other nation put together besides China, a latest report said on Friday.

" US power plants are polluters on a global scale," said Elizabeth Ouzts of Environment America Research & Policy Center which released the report "America's Dirtiest Power Plants," ahead of the next weeks United Nations Climate Summit in New York.

"It's time to stop ignoring our largest global warming polluter, and start a major transition to clean power," she said, adding that the US power plants are world's third largest carbon polluters, edging out India.

According to the report, in 2012, US power plants produced more than six percent of global warming emissions worldwide, more than any other industrialised nation except China and the US as a whole.

The 50 dirtiest US power plants produced 30 per cent of all power-sector carbon dioxide emissions in 2012, the same as the entire economy of South Korea, the world's seventh-largest carbon emitter, it said.

The 100 dirtiest US power plants produced 19 per cent of all power-sector carbon dioxide emissions, the same as Germany, the 6th largest carbon emitter.

The Clean Power Plan would eliminate as much carbon pollution as the entire country of Canada produced in 2012.

Canada is the 8th largest carbon emitter in the world, the report said.

According to the report, there are 2,154 power plants in the US, which accounts for six.

Three per cent of the total global carbon dioxide emissions, which is more than the nearly six per cent of the total global carbon dioxide emission by the whole of India.