Page 17 - EurOil Week 36

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Poland pledges bold move away from coal

POLAND POLAND wants to reduce coal’s share in the Transitioning away from coal will be a polit-
country’s energy mix to 37-56% in 2030 from ical minefield. Poland’s mining sector employs
Poland’s economy the current figure of over 70%, the climate min- some 80,000 people while its unions are politi-
is among the most istry said in the updated energy policy plan on cally strong and have derailed or delayed changes
emissions-intensive in September 8. before.
Europe. Poland’s economy is among the most emis- Poland hopes to ease the transformation by
sions-intensive in Europe. That has long put throwing PLN60bn (€13.47bn) at the mining
Warsaw at loggerheads with the ever-bolder regions for the so-called “just transition” or a
climate policies of the European Union, which shift from dependency on coal to a cleaner econ-
envisages that the 27-nation bloc will become omy that will not collapse coal regions’ labour
carbon-neutral by 2050. markets. The bulk of the money will come from
While Poland officially opposes the carbon the EU coffers.
neutrality deadline, the growing costs of car- Developing renewables and nuclear power
bon dioxide emissions are now pushing Warsaw could create 300,000 new jobs in Poland, the
to consider reducing coal’s dominance in the ministry said in the plan.
energy mix. Environmental and climate organisations
Coal’s share in electricity production will criticised the plan for not making clear when
diminish further to 11-28% in 2040, depending Poland would wean itself off coal altogether.
on the cost trajectory of carbon dioxide emission There also are doubts regarding the plan’s align-
permits, the ministry’s plan assumes. ment with the expected hiking of the EU’s emis-
Coal will be replaced by renewable energy sion reduction ambitions, to be announced next
and – from the early 2030s – nuclear power, Cli- week.
mate Minister Michal Kurtyka said, presenting The European Commission is expected to
the plan. The strategy assumes development of moot raising the carbon dioxide emissions
8-11 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power by reduction target for 2030 from the current 40%
2040 as well as 6-9 GW of nuclear power. to at least 55%. ™

Polish refiner PKN Orlen pledges

zero-emissions by 2050

POLAND POLISH oil refiner PKN Orlen has pledged to businesses.
become emissions-neutral by 2050, mirroring The acquisition secured conditional approval
PKN Orlen follows other similar commitments made by other European from the European Commission in July, and
European companies in oil and gas companies over the last year. PKN has since also made a bid for state gas com-
making such a pledge. The state-owned company unveiled plans pany PGNiG. Earlier it also took over Polish
on September 9 to invest PLN25bn ($6.6bn) in power utility Energa.
clean energy projects over the next three decades PKN aims to lower emissions from its refin-
to reach this goal. ing and petrochemical activities by 20% and its
“The global energy transformation that is power generation operations by 33% over the
taking place before our eyes is a huge develop- next ten years, it said. It will provide more details
ment opportunity for Central Europe,” PKN in a strategy update due to be revealed in the
CEO Daniel Obajtek commented. “As the larg- fourth quarter.
est company in the region, we want to increase The company aims to reduce its carbon foot-
our involvement in this process and we are well print by investing in biofuels, wind and solar
positioned to do it.” power and hydrogen technologies. After acquir-
PKN owns refineries in Poland, Lithua- ing Energa, it also replaced coal with cleaner gas
nia and the Czech Republic, and sells refined as the fuel for the utility’s planned power station
fuels across Central and Eastern Europe. It is in Ostroleka.
in the process of acquiring its smaller rival Through Energa, PKN also gained a minor-
Lotos, the owner of another refiner in Poland ity shareholding in PGG, Poland’s top coal pro-
and a regional fuel network. Both compa- ducer that is set to be restructured amid financial
nies also have upstream and petrochemical difficulties.™

Week 36 10•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P17