Zygmunt Łukaszczyk – Silesia province governor

Ninety-four percent of Poland’s power engineering runs on coal. Electricity demand forecasts show that renewable and nuclear energy will not change this in any significant way and that our economy will continue to be chiefly coal-fuelled. We must, therefore, ask ourselves how our energy sector and our industry are to continue growing despite the rather tight corset of CO2 limits?


Romuald Talarek – Metallurgy Industrial & Trade Chamber

The battle against greenhouse gases is a consequence of the Kyoto Protocol. The process of cutting down excessive CO2 emissions began in 2005 and is planned in three stages – 2005-07, 2008-12 and 2013-20. Poland has met the basic Kyoto requirements, however we are aware that we need innovative solutions to further curb excessive energy consumption in metallurgy. Over the past 15 years we have managed to cut CO2 emissions and raise effectiveness by 60% and 25% respectively. Metallurgy has obviously done its homework and now we must not waste what we have achieved.


Jerzy Buzek - European Parliament

We will be able to deal with the climate crisis effectively only if we work globally. One hundred and thirty countries will attend the next global warming talks at the close of this year in Poznań. The European Parliament is currently working on new climate and energy directives, to come into force after 2012. We must be aware that these directives carry a serious threat for the European economy – and especially Polish energy. No other country’s energy sources are structured like Poland’s. We must do all we can to change these directives, in other words to delay the introduction an auction system in energy.


Bernard Błaszczyk – Undersecretary of State, Ministry of the Environment

The Polish government is currently taking part in talks on an energy and climate package. If we fail to negotiate a different emission quota distribution system from the one suggested by the EC, our economy could be facing a difficult time. After 2012 energy will be the only industry forced to auction for CO2 limits, while in the remaining industries they will be gradually diminished to reach a 20% greenhouse reduction level by 2020. Our aim in the energy talks is for the same to apply to Polish energy. It would be less destructive for the Polish economy if power engineering could gradually adapt to the reduction levels like other branches.


Jerzy Podsiadło – Arcelor Mittal SA

Metallurgy is most worried about the distribution of limits in 2008-2012. The EC and the Polish government have agreed on an 11-million-ton CO2 limit for metallurgy, which gives us cause for concern as it means we will have to curb our growth plans. In my opinion the EC realized the consequences of its decision only after it had been made. CO2 limits are a global problem. Without global solutions we will not be able to cut down emissions at all. If we want to develop steel production in coming years we will have to buy limits, which will lower our leverage against countries like Russia, Ukraine and China, which are not covered by the limits.

Janusz Steinhoff – former Deputy PM, economist

CO2 reductions along the present rules will be highly destructive for Polish industry. The industry sector will have to pay for its own emissions and purchase very expensive electricity, whose production structure is what it is. I think the EU should view Poland as a country which produces only half of the CO2 emissions generated by the “old” members. We are all for environmental protection and there is no question that we must adopt legislation which ensures improvement in this sphere. However, I believe the mechanisms the EU has adopted here are wrong and have petrified growth in some countries – highly industrialized countries received higher limits while Poland, which is still in its development phase, received a limit adequate to the 2007 emission level. This shows how the new EU members are hindered in their growth.

Jerzy Bernhard - Stalprofil SA

Paying for CO2 emissions is, in a sense, imposing a new tax. The insufficient limits granted Poland put our producers in a losing position right from the start as their products will be more expensive than the competition’s.


Ryszard Pazdan – environment expert, BCC

For several years now BCC has been turning attention to economically-destructive environmental threats by means of its Ekokorporacja (Eco-Corporation programme. According to our calculations Poland’s CO2 limits could bring our GDP down by 1.5%.
/compiled by HK/