It guarantees secure and competitive supplies of energy and contributes to the creation of conditions of sustainable development.

It took a team of scientists under Professor Krzysztof Żmijewski of the Warsaw University of Technology eighteen months to draft the “Alternative Energy Policy for Poland till 2030” document, in which a total of more than 550 eminent specialists in energy generation as well as representatives of many public organisations participated.

Andrzej Kassenberg, president of the Institute for Sustainable Development, emphasises: “This document is a comprehensively viable draft of Poland’s energy policy but it also, equally importantly, sets fresh standards of elaborating strategic reports at the national, province and local level. For the first time when creating a strategic document growing consumer requirements and acceptable limits and restrictions connected with the use of natural resources and environment protection have been taken into consideration. It is also the first time that various social groups, including the energy, industry, mining, trade unions, public organisations and local administration have been encouraged to take part in its drafting and not only in essential consultation.”

The present approach to such documents in which the scope of satisfying social and economic requirements are defined, followed by attempts to improve the effectiveness in which resources are used and also to minimise their impact on the environment is wholly unacceptable. That stems from limitations inherent in our planet in terms of resources and ability to cope with pollution as well as from the need to act fairly in relation to the needs of future generations and to maintain ecological prudence. At this moment the Earth’s ability to meet consumer needs has been exceeded by 30%. Should no fundamental changes occur in managing the Earth’s ecosystem, should production and consumption models remain unchanged, the resources available not in one but two planets will be required to satisfy all requirements by the 2030s. With that in mind, the strategic goal of the Alternative energy policy of Poland till 2030 has been approved as being creation of conditions for the effective satisfaction of energy needs within the limits of defined and available natural resources and restrictions concerning the removal of impurities to the natural environment.

By defining the strategic goal in such a manner, reference is made to the constitutional principle of sustainable growth. The framework within which the strategic goal is implemented is set by greenhouse gas emission limits set both by the government in 2003 within the Climate Policy (40% reduction between 1988 and 2020) as well as within the EU energy-climate package (a reduction by 20-30% between 1990 and 2020 depending on the decision of the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December 2009).

To attain the strategic goal expressed by the amount of CO2 emissions, the defining of strategies allowing such a limit to be reached became imperative in the form of programmes which take various energy sources into account, always assuming electric energy consumption needs are satisfied. Six scenarios were studied in the first stage. With such factors as costs, technological issues, social problems and ecological questions uppermost in mind, a scenario representing maximum time-variable energy effectiveness and a substantial participation of regional energy generating plants was selected for further processing.

Andrzej Kassenberg explains: “ A programme based on energy-generating effectiveness and a substantial contribution of regional energy generation to the greatest extent ensures fulfilment of various social, economic and ecological goals. It guarantees secure and competitive supplies of energy and satisfies conditions of sustainable growth.

The programme based on energy-generating effectiveness also assumes that a whole range of instruments have to be introduced to achieve planned goals within the framework of electrical power engineering, deliveries of heat and transport. The most important of these is to establish an energy and climate agency whose purposes are creating policy and legislation, introducing tax credits awarded when making purchases or energy-frugal investments as well as expanding a system of trading in certificates obtained for developing renewable power generation (green certificate), supporting highly efficient co-generation and local energy sources (red certificate) and in the future assisting gas-based energy generation (yellow), enhancing energy efficiency (white), power units with efficiency exceeding 46% (blue) and clean coal technologies, e.g. CCS (orange certificate). In the long run, trading in these certificates is meant to force energy producers to use more renewable energy sources.

Kassenberg summarises his remarks: “Our goal was mainly to show that an alternative approach to shaping policy is possible. The starting point for such an approach is the environment’s ability to neutralise pollution and to renew resources. We also intend to present analyses of various paths to implement such a prepared policy which would make it possible to take the optimum road to reach the goals set by such policy”.

That is the reason why a universal education campaign to appreciate the value of energy both in households, public utilities and companies is included among those imperative instruments. A fund should be introduced to support power generation efficiency and renewable energy, as well as managing demand in the transport sector, together with streamlining the relationship between spatial development and transport needs and also promoting public and vehicle-free transport.