Finland reprimanded over peat power
The International Energy Agency, an organization that monitors the energy market of industrialized countries, has reprimanded Finland for subsidizing the electricity generated from peat-fired power plants. The UN energy panel considers peat a fossil fuel. In 2006, Finland introduced a policy, which makes large-scale, peat-fired power plants eligible for the state support.
The agency, in its annual report, criticized Finland's policy, saying that peat generates much more CO2 than coal. It also asked the government to put efforts to develop renewable energy instead of using peats.
Finland's minister of economic affairs Mauri Pekkarinen, however, defends peat. Responding to the report, he said that Finnish scientists were working to more precisely define the character of peat and Finland might ask the UN to redefine peat as a slowly renewable natural resource.