120 days ago the annual UN climate summit started in Warsaw and Poland assumed the Presidency of the UNFCCC process which it will hold throughout 2014 until the first day of COP 20 in Lima on December 1st. The conference brought forth very vague decisions and the Polish leadership seems quite weak too. What is the news from the host country? Is the government making any progress in its efforts to deal with climate change? What are its next steps on both the national and international level?
Last week thirteen European ministers from the so called Green Growth Group – including France, Germany, Italy, Britain, and Spain – urged the European Union to agree on the main elements of its 2030 policy framework for climate and energy during the European Council meeting on March 20th and 21st despite opposition from… Poland. Marcin Korolec – who after his dismissal as Minister of the Environment now holds the position of the Government Plenipotentiary for Climate Policy – said that immediate adoption of the Commission’s proposals seems rather unlikely. He also added that an agreement is not required until early next year and the EU should postpone it until other major economies adopt similar commitments. In February, only one of fifty-one Polish members of the European Parliament voted for binding targets for 2030. As a result of the government’s opposition, Polish and international environmentalists and social activists are planning protest actions on March 20th.
There is not much progress on the national level either. Today the Polish parliament adopted a new, business-friendly geological and mining law, which should attract gas investors and especially speed up extraction of shale gas. Since many of the old requirements have been mitigated, the law seems to be more friendly for investors than for the environment – shale gas extraction is tax-exempt until 2020 (after 2020 total taxes and fees will amount to maximum 40 percent of extraction income), a state-owned operator controlling the investments will not be created, and attaining licenses will be much easier. After Marcin Korolec was dismissed because of little progress on new shale gas regulations, the new Minister of the Environment Maciej Grabowski has made it his priority. The first commercial well could have already been made this year, he announced recently. However, Polish reserves of shale gas are still unknown and the estimates are very divergent since only fifty-seven wells have been made thus far. Moreover, it might turn out that imported gas will be cheaper, experts claim. Although the majority of the society is generally in favour of shale gas, a considerable increasing percentage of the population opposes extraction in the vicinity of their residence. Since 2012 the local community in the region of Żurawlow has been protesting – including occupying a piece of land – against Chevron’s plans for the exploration and extraction of shale gas. Occupy Chevron Poland is meanwhile a large movement, known also outside of the country. On March 15th another big demonstration in Żurawlow will take place. People from all over Poland will join to show their solidarity with the struggling community.
Today has not only been an important day for shale gas. Polish Deputy Economy Minister Jerzy Pietrewicz announced that the draft bill on renewable energy will probably be approved next week by the Polish cabinet. Its last version from February 4th was strongly criticized by the EC BREC Institute for Renewable Energy. According to its experts, the included proposal of supporting prosumers does not go far enough, it completely disregards economic conditions and social expectations in Poland. The Institute refers to opinion polls from 2013 – while 60 percent of those questioned consider investments, 40 percent of them claim the payback period should be no longer than 5 years. The proposed return on investment outlined in the draft will take 15 to 20 years. “It is obvious that the proposed law will not stimulate social activity on a large scale nor initiate activities which as a result would lead to technology price reduction. Thereby the present government’s proposition does not support a fair distribution of benefits from renewable energy sources and will consolidate the current system, where the costs are shared by all and benefits are reached by only a few”, the Institute commented.
Besides shale gas and renewables, nuclear power is fiercely discussed in Poland right now. On January 28th the Council of Ministers adopted the country’s nuclear power programme. Today, on the third anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, Greenpeace Poland announced that it plans to take proceedings against the programme, claiming that it fails to respect people’s doubts and does not take into consideration the risk and possible consequences of a nuclear accident. The government’s energy strategy currently relies on nuclear power to meet its long-term commitment to reduce carbon emissions. However, Greenpeace’s alternative scenario shows that a reduction of 88 percent (between 2010-2050) is possible even without nuclear power (the government’s scenario aims for just 16 percent reductions including nuclear power). The first power plant should start working by the end of 2024 and the second by 2035.
Still hoping for good news from Poland? There is some to share: 600 million PLN (about 143 million EUR) will be spent in the future for small renewable energy installations, which can help to avoid 165.000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually. Another 300 million PLN (about 71.5 million EUR) will be provided in subsidies for energy efficient housing between 2014 and 2018.
Not to spoil your mood but the lower range estimate of the health costs related to coal combustion for electricity amounts to 12.5 billion PLN (about 2.9 billion EUR) and in February the European Commission accepted the Polish Transitional National Plan (TNP), which gives coal power plants more time to reduce their emissions. According to the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), this estimates external health costs between 2.4 and 6.8 billion EUR within three years.
It seems that the only really good news is that the Polish COP Presidency will end in 265 days.
Photo Credits: UNclimatechange, Instytut Kościuszki, Occupy Chevron Poland, On-eco Polska, Michael Brooking via Flickr & 120 Days