Ecology, Energy, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation

Minister of the Environment Keit Pentus-Rosimannus said in an interview to Eesti Päevaleht that 75% is a pretty ambitious goal for Estonia, because at the same time we must also take into consideration the natural resources we use such as oil shale. The latter, she says, is vitally necessary from the point of view of Estonia's energy security.

Speaking of oil shale energy industry, the environment minister said that the direction should be to "squeeze out" more from oil shale. It takes less oil shale year after year purely for electricity production, which is the most CO2 producing area.

"By the year 2050, our whole oil shale sector should become a model of how a mindlessly polluting sector can be redesigned into a branch that has reduced exhaust gases most," the minister said.

This presumes besides the development of technology of purification equipment also that burning the oil shale is replaced with oil production and the resulting residue can be used in electricity production.