How to save Polish coal?

Audio 01:43

PGE, the public giant of Polish coal power plants, is on the brink. (illustration image) Sean Gallup / Getty Images

By: Thomas Giraudeau Follow

How to save Polish coal, penalized by the Covid-19 epidemic? A member of the government launches the debate: he would like to get his country out of the European system of CO2 quotas, the market for rights to pollute.

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Free up cash to boost the economy. This, in essence, is Janusz Kowalski's goal. The Polish Deputy Minister of State Property has declared that the European system of quotas for polluting rights should disappear as soon as next year or if not, that Polish companies can withdraw from it. This system to limit carbon dioxide emissions threatens the future of the Polish energy and mining sectors, he says.

Today, the country still produces three quarters of its energy from coal. Poland is therefore clearly on the side of buyers of pollution rights on the market. And since the price of its quotas has increased fivefold in three years, the bill has increased considerably.

The European CO2 market therefore weighs on the Polish coal sector

Exiting the market therefore means giving the Polish energy sector a little bit of financial margin. PGE, the public giant in coal-fired power plants, is on the brink. He has suffered all the more since the start of the epidemic, with the 4% drop in energy consumption.

The European CO2 market therefore leads to the Polish coal sector, hence the words of Janusz Kowalski, applauded by the Solidarnosc union. But the deputy minister, a member of the very conservative, even climatosceptic wing of the Polish government, was disowned by the more progressive wing and its representative, Michal Kurtyka. The Minister of Climate has assured him: Poland will not leave the market for pollution rights. Kurtyka rather wants to reform the system, so that it finances more the energy transition.

The desire to abandon the Green Deal

Poland has therefore not joined the very firm position of its Czech neighbor which wishes to draw a line under the Green Deal, the European Green Pact. But Warsaw remains in the waiting position. Before committing to the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

Poland wants guarantees. Gradually abandon coal for renewable, but only if it receives a lot of money and can help miners to convert.

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  • Poland
  • Energies
  • Environment