Ursula von der Layen, the new President of the European Commission, yesterday presented the proposed “new deal” on EU climate policy named the “Green Deal” which she compared to the landing of a man on the moon. From Poland’s perspective, this “Green Deal” on climate, as proposed by the European Commission, might be deadly, unless it is connected to a compensation system that will allow a gradual change in the energy mix on which the Polish economy is currently based.
The Green Deal is a priority of the new European Commission. For the time being it is a plan to reach this goal and the particular regulations are to be presented next year.The European Green Deal is a new strategy of development for Europe. For Poland, the major change in energy sources means enormous costs and this is why Poland is counting on receiving funds from a new program called Just Transition Fund.
”Poland is a country with a relatively small emission in total, so our impact on climate change is minor. That of course does not mean that we should stay away from the energy policy of the European Union, but we should primarily pay attention to the energy transformation stability and security. We shall compensate the losses to the economy”- says Jakub Wiech, Energetyka24.com
In order to get acceptance for the European Green Deal program from the coal dependent countries, for which such a move would be costly, the EU commission proposed the creation of a Just Transition Fund. It is planned to be in the amount of 100 billion Euros. In the meantime, experts say that the coal is a basic source of energy for the Polish economy and for individual consumers. Low price of energy equals to the competitiveness of Polish economy and forcing the change too quickly, as suggested by the European Commission, might require more time than Brussels wants.