Page 77 - bne magazine November 2021_20211104 uzbekistan risding

bne November 2021
Opinion 77
MACRO ADVISORY
Energy lobby dominates Czech climate change debate
Albin Sybera
The Czech election campaign, has largely ignored vital issues such as how the heavily industrial Central European country will cope with climate change, instead focusing on phantom threats such as an Afghan refugee influx.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis has set this agenda, in a successful drive to mobilise his supporters and steal votes from the far-right SPD party. Opposition parties have been forced into a defensive posture, sidelining key issues such as climate change or the European Commission’s criticism of the billionaire populist’s conflicts of interest in handling EU funds.
When Babis has raised climate change in the election campaign, it has been only to criticise the EU’s “green madness”, which he argues is "imposed" on the country. Both climate scepticism and euroscepticism are hot button topics for rightwing and extremist voters, and a potential point of agreement between the premier’s ANO party and the rightwing opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) in
a future coalition.
Babis, who had tried to block the EU’s target of going carbon- neutral by 2050, has pledged to return to fight against it all over again after the election.
The neglect of the vital topic of Czechia’s need to step up its measures to ameliorate climate change and to reorientate its industry towards a carbon-neutral future is very handy for the majority state-owned energy utility CEZ – which some Czech journalists describe as more powerful than
the government – along with the EPH and Sev.en Energy companies, owned respectively by two of the country's wealthiest tycoons, Daniel Kretinsky (No.4 on the Forbes ranking) and Pavel Tykac (ranked 9th). Both private energy companies have a record of doing deals with CEZ, usually ones in which the dominant state-owned utility seems to benefit least.
CEZ, EPH and Sev.en Energy want a slow transition to a carbon-neutral future, with CEZ and EPH setting a company target of as late as 2050 for going carbon-neutral, while Sev-en Energy has yet to set a date.
Jezeri castle, perched on the edge of the Krusne Hory mountains, overlooks the North Bohemian opencast brown coal mines.
In fact Sev.en Energy's and EPH’s business model of buying coal mines and coal-burning power stations in fire sales by other energy companies is based on a slow shift to renewable energy; a quick switch through more expensive carbon credits could render many of their investments unviable.
The ignoring of the climate change issue in the election campaign reflects the dominance of this energy lobby in the country’s meagre debate on these future challenges, and
in particular this industry‘s close links with the dominant political parties and its control of influential media.
If Babis wins re-election this weekend, the risk is that
this energy lobby will continue to dominate the climate change debate in the country, slowing down the necessary readjustment to a carbon-neutral future.
"Yellow Baron"
Czechia is one of the worst greenhouse gas polluters per capita in the EU, with some 40% of its energy coming from coal, plus an industrial sector that is very energy-intensive. Babis’ outgoing cabinet plans extensive investments into
the enhancement of the country’s nuclear facilities as the country’s path to decarbonisation, rather than promoting renewable energy (though it has recently improved legislation that had held the sector back). The government’s targets for renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gases have been regularly criticised by the EU for lacking ambition.
The one area of green energy where incentives are particularly generous is in biofuels, where the premier’s agro-chemical conglomerate Agrofert is the biggest player.
Agrofert’s subsidiary Preol is the country’s key supplier of biofuel ingredients used by the state-run oil utility CEPRO, and effectively the only domestic producer, according to an analysis by news website Hlídacípes.org.
In 2019 Babis’ government passed legislation supporting
the production of biofuels, leading to Denik Referendum christening him the “Yellow Baron” because of his ownership of many of the country’s ubiquitous fields of rape, used as
a biofuel input.
www.bne.eu