EU Summits No Carbon Goal Because of Poland
During the recent EU Summit that took place in Brussels Poland together with three other Eastern European states: Hungary, Estonia, and the Czech Republic, it has blocked the proposal to adopt new carbon emission goals. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his obligation is to protect Polish interests and the initiative for combating climate change was highly detrimental to Polish companies and economy.
The EU summit decided and wants to pledge to cut carbon emissions in Europe down to net zero by 2050. This goal has support from the majority of Member States. For the objective to be met, countries need to shift towards green energy, generated by e.g. wind and solar farms. Meanwhile, Poland obtains most of its electric power from coal-burning power plants. A rapid move towards lower emissions would lead to a hike in electricity prices.
What is the Major Agenda of the EU Summit:
“We are in favor of ambitious and innovative climate policy; this is an essential element of the development of Poland” – assured the Polish Prime Minister. “However, we will not agree for Polish entrepreneurs to bear the costs that are disproportionate to energy consumption and resulting CO2 emissions” – he noted.
Polish authorities stress the need for the shift away from coal not to happen at the expense of countries that are less developed technologically and do not have access to carbon-neutral solutions. Polish Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Konrad Szymański stressed the fact that Poland has already prepared a domestic energy and climate plan. “Energy transformation cannot be drafted without a cost analysis and its scenario has to be written in Poland” – he said.
In response to the outcome of the EU summit in Brussels, Greenpeace Poland set up a projector casting an image of the Polish Prime Minister and the word “SHAME” on the chimney of a coal power plant in Bełchatów. The activists commented that the power plant and Mateusz Morawiecki are the two biggest climate destroyers in the country.
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