Polen beschikt over grote steenkoolreserves. Deze zijn voor de Poolse energievoorziening en de economie in het algemeen van levensbelang. Vandaar dat Polen altijd een onwillige partner is geweest in het decarboniseringsbeleid van de EU. Van de nieuwe Poolse regering wordt verwacht dat deze een stevige ruk naar rechts zal maken. Daarbij behoort een ‘opt-out’ uit het EU–klimaat–cum energiebeleid tot de mogelijkheden, eens te meer daar de Polen bekend staan als harde onderhandelaars.

Onder de titel, ‘Poland’s First EU Fight Is Brewing and It’s Not What You Think’, schreef Ewa Krukowska voor Bloomberg.

As Poland’s new government promises to be more assertive over everything from refugees to how to handle Russia, the first battle with Brussels is already looming and may prove to be just as divisive.

The Law & Justice party, which is on course for an unprecedented parliamentary majority, will fight for special treatment under the European Union climate pact, according to Konrad Szymanski, the likely next minister responsible for EU affairs. As the continent’s largest producer of coal, Poland wants concessions going beyond what European leaders decided last year or it will seek an opt-out from the pact.

“I thought that migration is the most difficult issue in Europe but now it looks like it’s going to be climate policies,” Szymanski said in an interview in Warsaw two days before the Oct. 25 election. “With regard to migration, Europe is moving toward pragmatism. In climate, I can’t see an acceptable solution at this moment.”

The EU wants to be a leader in the global fight against climate change. Its 28 members agreed the bloc should cut greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 40 percent by the end of the next decade compared with 1990. Now in Poland it faces opposition from a government set to be led by the daughter of a miner and a party that promises to champion a coal industry that employs almost 100,000 people and is bleeding money. …

The EU climate and energy pact for the next decade won unanimous support from the bloc’s leaders in October last year. The political agreement was followed by a draft law proposed by the European Commission to accelerate the pace of carbon-dioxide reductions in the EU emissions trading system. In the first half of next year the commission is also due to put forward legislation on how to divide among member states the burden of pollution cuts outside the carbon market.

It all adds up to a burden for the Polish economy and should never have been signed by the outgoing Polish government, according to Szymanski. …

De Europese Commissie houdt enkele concessies achter de hand om de bittere pil voor de Polen te vergulden. Maar …

“Even if those [plans] were amended, we still have a strategic problem because even with all the things in the box we are not in a position to compensate the Polish energy sector and industry for the losses they will have to bear,” Szymanski said. “The opt-out scenario on the table shows the level of the difficulty to find a solution.” ….

Lees verder hier.

De uitlatingen van Piotr Naimski, die is getipt als minister van energie, zijn gelijkluidend.

Onder de titel ,’Poland to dig in over coal, says potential energy minister’, rapporteerde Agnieszka Barteczko voor Reuters;

Oct 28 Poland’s new government will fight even harder in the European Union to win concessions for its coal-based industry, said Piotr Naimski, tipped to lead the country’s energy ministry following last Sunday’s parliamentary election.

Ninety percent of Poland’s energy is generated from the highly-polluting coal and Warsaw has long opposed an EU drive to curb carbon emissions.

But the conservative, eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party, which won outright parliamentary majority in Sunday’s vote, could take an even harder line than the outgoing centre-right government.

Naimski said the new PiS government would fight “any obstacles” that would prevent Warsaw from sticking to coal rather than developing renewable energy sources.

“It’s too early to present detailed plans regarding energy policy or coal mining restructuring, but I can certainly say that our goal will be to ensure that the Polish energy industry in the long term relies on commodities available in Poland,” … “We will remove any obstacles that would make it difficult for us to achieve this goal.”

PiS wants to renegotiate EU climate policies that oblige Poland to cut CO2 emissions by moving away from coal and introducing more renewables, a move that will upset many of Poland’s European partners.

A more combative stance on coal from Poland is all but certain to complicate global talks due to start in Paris on Nov. 30 to seek a worldwide climate deal beyond 2020.

Lees verder hier.

Ook de Poolse president Andrzej Duda heeft inmiddels een verklaring afgelegd. Onder de titel, ‘Polens Präsident gegen Fortsetzung des Kyoto-Protokolls’ rapporteerde EurActiv Brussel.

Polens Präsident Andrzej Duda weigert sich, das UN-Kyoto-Protokolls bis 2020 zu verlängern. Denn dadurch wäre das kohleabhängige EU-Land gezwungen, seine Treibhausgas-Emissionen weiter zu senken.

Die Entscheidung des polnischen Präsidenten Andrzej Duda, eine zweite Verpflichtungsperiode des Kyoto-Protokolls zu billigen, “blockiert den Ratifizierungsprozess” über Maßnahmen zur Senkung von Emissionen nur einen Monat vor dem historischen UN-Klimagipfel in Paris (COP21), so die Einschätzung eines umweltpolitischen Brüsseler Think Tanks.

Doch Duda zufolge seien mehr Analysen für eine Verlängerung erforderlich.

Lees verder hier.

‘Brussel’ is sterk gekant tegen ‘opt-outs’. Komen er daar te veel van, dan verbrokkelt de integratie tot een ‘Europa à la carte’. Dat is nu al het geval met de erosie van onbelemmerde grensovergangen op basis van het Schengen-verdrag in reactie op de vluchtelingenstromen. De Commissie zal alles uit de kast halen om een verdere ontwikkeling in die richting te voorkomen.

Het zal dus hard tegen hard gaan.

Voor mijn eerdere bijdragen over klimaat en aanverwante zaken zie hier, hier, hier, hier en hier.

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