Poland “will not support” EU’s “unrealistic” 2040 emissions cut target

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Poland’s government says it will not support a newly proposed European Union target for cutting emissions, which it calls “unrealistic and unacceptable”.

On Wednesday, the European Commission announced a proposal to amend the EU Climate Law to include a 2040 target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 90% compared to their level in 1990.

Currently, the bloc has a target of 55% cuts by 2030, which the commission says it is “well on track” to achieve. The aim is then to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

In response to the new proposal, climate minister Paulina Hennig-Kloska told Polsat News that “Poland will not support the climate goal for 2040 as proposed by the European Commission” because “our country is not yet ready to implement such ambitious plans”.

The minister emphasised that the government supports having “more renewables in the energy mix” and “this is the direction we are heading in”. But she added that “eliminating emissions is not only about energy, it is also about transport, industry, agriculture… and as a country we are not ready”.

She said that Poland “expects greater flexibility” from Brussels. “The EU’s reduction target must be realistic, and the contributions of individual countries toward achieving it must be varied.“

Government spokesman Adam Szłapka echoed her remarks, calling the proposed climate target “unrealistic and unacceptable” in a post on social media.

Poland’s right-wing opposition was also strongly critical of the proposal, with MEP Michał Dworczyk, an MEP for the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, saying it would “result in unimaginable costs, amounting to trillions of zloty for Poles”.

Dworczyk also accused figures from Poland’s main ruling party, the centrist Civic Platform (PO), of “lying” during the recent presidential election campaign when they claimed that the EU’s flagship climate policy, the Green Deal, was no longer a threat to Poland.

The European Commission’s proposal will still be subject to negotiations between member states and within the European Parliament. Poland will seek to build a coalition of countries to block or soften the target, reports the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna (DGP) daily.

Warsaw reportedly regarded France as a potential ally, after President Emmanuel Macron last week spoke publicly in favour of delaying discussions over the 2040 targets. Hungary is another opponent of the plans.

The current proposal already includes some elements intended to soften the blow for countries such as Poland, including so-called international credits – such as planting trees or protecting forests elsewhere – that can shift some decarbonisation away from domestic sectors.

However, the scope of such measures is currently “very modest”, writes DGP, covering only three percentage points out of the planned 90% cut. Yet even that figure has been criticised as too high by some green groups, notes The Guardian.

Hennig-Kloska told DGP that Poland regards the credit system as a “useful tool”. But she expressed doubt that it would be enough to win over the support of sceptical member states.

In 2022, Poland was ranked as the EU’s “least green” country. Last year, coal accounted for 57% of the country’s electricity production, by far the highest figure in the bloc.

Despite lagging behind, Poland has in recent years sought to accelerate its transition, in particular by boosting renewables, which accounted for nearly 30% of the energy mix last year, up from under 10% in 2015. In April, Poland’s share of electricity generated by coal fell below 50% for the first time.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Ministerstwo Klimatu i Środowiska (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.