Greenpeace launches campaign against construction of floating LNG terminal in Poland

Greenpeace has launched a campaign opposing the government’s plans to construct a new floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the port Gdańsk. It argues the project will increase Poland’s dependence on external gas supplies, damage the climate, and threaten protected animal species.

A deputy foreign minister, however, accused the organisation of “trying to undermine Poland’s security”. The government has argued that the terminal is necessary as part of efforts to make both Poland and neighbouring countries independent of gas imports from Russia.

Poland has for years intended to build a floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) in the port of Gdańsk on the Baltic coast. It was planned as part of efforts to diversify away from Russian energy supplies initiated even before the invasion of Ukraine.

Those efforts already included a stationary LNG terminal in Świnoujście that opened in 2015 and last year received a record 58 shipments carrying 4.4 million tonnes of LNG, mainly from the United States and Qatar.

The war in Ukraine has accelerated and expanded plans for the terminal in Gdańsk, with the climate minister announcing last year that its planned capacity would be doubled from to 12 billion cubic metres (bcm) a year due to interest from Poland’s landlocked neighbours Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

A public consultation is underway for the project, which, according to plans put forward by the government, would become operational by 2027-28 with an initial capacity of 6.1 billion cubic metres (bcm) a year.

Greenpeace Polska, however, claims that the project is a “harmful investment” and has called on Poles to send letters opposing the project.

“An energy transition based on natural gas is a costly trap that undermines Poland’s energy security and the economic interests of Polish society,” said the organisation.

“The implementation of this plan means that Poland will continue to be dependent on external supplies of this fuel,” it added

The organisation also notes that the LNG terminal will be located in an area within the EU’s Natura 2000 nature protection network and is home to many species of birds, marine mammals and fish under protection.

Construction of the terminal as well as the traffic of ships to it once completed will threaten, among others, grey seals, porpoises and many fish and bird species, claims Greenpeace, which also noted that gas imports and their use are bad for the climate.

“Although its combustion emits less CO2 than coal-fired power generation, the extraction and transport of natural gas emits large amounts of methane, which heats up the atmosphere even faster than carbon dioxide,” said the organisation.

Deputy foreign minister, Paweł Jabłonski, however, rejected Greenpeace’s arguments. “Under the slogans of climate protection, they are trying to undermine Poland’s security and drive us back into energy dependence on other countries,” he wrote on social media.

Energy analyst Wojciech Jakóbik also addressed Greenpeace’s call, pointing out that the terminal is intended to help implement the EU’s plan to part with Russian gas by 2027. “[Focus on] environment yes, but not blindly,” he wrote.

“It is also worth adding that [protecting] porpoises were once an argument against the Baltic Pipe,” he added, referring to a gas pipeline from Norway to Poland that opened last year. “The animals were fine, and if we had not built it, the energy crisis could have ended up with a gas shortage for us.”

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Main image credit: PGNiG press materials 

Alicja Ptak

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