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Climate: One year after COP24, Poland has changed little

The UN's major climate conference, COP25, begins Monday (December 2nd) in Madrid. Objectives of these climate negotiations, to revise upward the CO2 reduction commitments of each country, and to settle outstanding issues during the previous conference, the COP24 that was held in Poland, in Katowice. The opportunity to take stock of environmental policy.

with our correspondent in Warsaw, Thomas Giraudeau

COP24 took place last year in the heart of the largest coal basin in Europe, a highly polluted region. Since Poland has not really made efforts to reduce its dependence on coal. If in the speeches of the government, we hear about solar energy, gas or nuclear, in the acts, Poland is not at all ready to do without its black gold, coal. On the contrary.

Several projects for the exploitation of new deposits are being studied in the South of the country, notably in Silesia, around Katowice. This coal is primarily intended for domestic heating. About 40% of Poles still heat themselves with an individual stove. And then, the ore also goes to feed the power stations which produce today more than 80% of the electricity of the country. And again, it's not ready to change. A new coal plant is currently under construction north of Warsaw.

The failure of the Clean Air program

His name is "Czyste Powietrze", "Pure Air". This program, financed in part by Europe, has a fairly huge budget, 103 billion zlotys, nearly 25 billion euros by 2029. These are subsidies paid to residents to help them change their heating : replace their stove, too old and therefore too polluting, with a new stove, with solar or photovoltaic panels.

Another aspect is improving the insulation of the house or apartment. But this "Clean Air" program does not work at all. Procedures and forms too complex, offices responsible for handling files completely overwhelmed. Only 20,000 grants were paid in one year according to an environmental NGO. The European Union, which finances the program, hoped for 400,000. We are very far from the account.

Protecting the economy at the expense of the climate

So, we can imagine that at the European level, Poland is not making much progress on climate issues. Last June, at a European summit, Poland, along with Hungary, the Czech Republic and Estonia, refused to commit to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Official reason invoked by the Polish Prime Minister: a too ambitious and drastic climate policy that would do a lot of harm to the Polish economy and jobs. Especially in the coal industry.

It should be noted that last month, the executive announced the creation of a new ministry, that of Climate. With the former president of the COP24 Katowice at its head, rather committed to environmental issues.

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