International conference "Towards a low-carbon economy in Poland"
dodano: 2010-12-20
On Friday, 17th December 2010, the international conference "Towards a low-carbon economy in Poland" co-organized by the Climate Coalition, the Ministry of Economy, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, and the World Bank was held in Warsaw. During the conference experiences of EU member states in the process of moving away from coal were presented, as well as good practices of European regions previously dominated by industries associated with coal.
International conference
Towards a low-carbon economy in Poland
17 December 2010, Radisson Blu Hotel, ul. Grzybowska 24, Warsaw
Poland is a country whose economy relies strongly on fossil fuels. Over 90% of its electric power is produced from coal. Although the role of coal in heat generation is diminishing, it continues to be widely used also in this sector. The importance of coal in power generation is a result of the significant deposits of this fuel source in our country, and of energy from coal being seen for many years as the principal element of Poland's energy security.
Coal mining caused the salinity of rivers to rise and large areas of land to be taken up by waste storage. The transport and burning of coal resulted in rising emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, dust and carbon dioxide. Despite action taken over the last 20 years aiming to restructure and modernise this sector, it remains one of the major contributors to the degradation of Poland's environmental resources.
The need to adapt to higher environmental standards and to harmonise policies with the requirements of the European Union now presents itself as a challenge for the Polish power sector.
According to the report Poland 2030 Development Challenges, Poland should reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 50% by 2050. This will not be possible without change in the energy sector. Coal power and associated branches of the economy, however, provide employment for several hundred thousand people, and make an important contribution to the Polish national income. The creation of a low-carbon economy will therefore not be an easy process, neither will it be fast.
The results of the World Bank’s report Transformation Towards The Low-Carbon Economy In Poland were presented at the conference as well. The report aims to estimate the macroeconomic and fiscal effects for Poland that would result from the GHG emission reduction targets till 2020 and 2030. An innovative combination of engineering analysis and macroeconomic modeling was used in the report.
In which direction should Poland move to cut down the GHG emissions in the perspective of years 2020 and 2030? Does it pay to incur costs and invest into the energy sources diversification if the benefits of this process appear only in the future? What changes in the energy and climate policy of the EU are possible in the next years? We invited high-level speakers to discuss these issues.
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