Last week in Strasbourg, a debate took place during which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed that EU countries should drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. “Climate madness will not only continue but also be intensified,” warns PiS MEP Joachim Brudziński. He reminded that politicians from the coalition declared on December 13 that the coal units at the Dolna Odra power plant would be shut down, which in effect means the closure of the entire plant.
The European Commission proposed in July setting a climate target for 2040. This direction was supported by EC President Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union address on Wednesday in the European Parliament.
According to the proposal, greenhouse gas emissions should then be 90% lower compared to 1990 levels. Projects financed in third countries could be counted toward achieving this target.
PiS MEP Joachim Brudziński spoke about what this means for Polish power plants.
“Last week, we had a debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg and a speech by EC President Ursula von der Leyen, from which we learned that climate madness will not only continue but also be intensified. We learned that Ms. von der Leyen is setting new challenges for all EU countries, this time requiring a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 compared to 1990. What does this green madness, emphasized by the German politician, mean for the residents of Western Pomerania, and in this case for the residents of Gryfino? These assistants of German politicians, today sitting in ministerial offices and the office of the Polish Prime Minister, anticipating Ms. von der Leyen’s thoughts, declared on September 3 that the coal units at the Dolna Odra power plant would be shut down, which in effect means the closure of the plant,” said Brudziński.
He added that there are two dimensions to this decision.
“The dimension concerning the energy security of our entire country – moving away from coal units in the situation of, effectively, Russian aggression against NATO countries, means a sudden collapse of our country’s energy security,” he emphasized, directing a question to Donald Tusk.
“Is the closure of coal units another implementation of the German agenda, consistently pursued by Tusk’s government since he came to power?” asked the PiS politician.
He also stressed the second aspect – the social one. “This is the elimination of around 2,000 jobs, 800 of them directly linked to Dolna Odra, but also a huge number of companies cooperating with the Dolna Odra power plant,” he added.