1/18/2008

Walking on hot coals

Poland does not see why the European Union should stop it burning coal

THE Polish economy is growing fast, despite the global slowdown. That means it is consuming more energy. But the government has no real energy policy—so the country will end up using more coal, with all that implies for carbon emissions.

Nuclear-power policy is no more successful. An agreement between Poland and the three Baltic countries to build a nuclear-power plant on the site of a former Soviet reactor in Lithuania has not yet been signed. The Poles are unhappy that the Lithuanians are offering them less than the 1,200 megawatts of electricity they need for the project to make economic sense. Another idea is to build a nuclear-power plant in Poland itself, its first. But this is unpopular with Poles, who recall the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine.

So attention returns to coal. Waldemar Pawlak, the economy minister, has declared his love for the black stuff and, partly in response to record oil prices, has even called for greater emphasis on it. Poland depends on coal for some 95% of its electricity. But the European Union's ambitious plans to cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 20% by 2020 and to boost renewable energy are raising questions over coal. The Poles have already taken the European Commission to court over their emissions allowance, which they say is unreasonably low. This clash will continue, as all EU members seek higher emissions allowances and lower targets for renewables.

Poland will inevitably continue to rely heavily on coal, says Jerzy Buzek, an engineer who served as prime minister in 1997-2001 and is now a member of the European Parliament. The country has the biggest coal reserves in the European Union (see chart). The government supports the development of technology to make it cleaner and more efficient to burn coal, but that is not yet available. Mr Buzek pins his hopes on techniques to liquefy or gasify coal, but they are not yet developed. The capture and storage of carbon emissions underground is another possibility, but has yet to be used on any scale. And it could send the cost of coal soaring.

Next week, the commission will propose its emissions targets. Like others in eastern Europe, the Poles think the problem has been caused by richer countries. But as the biggest EU member in the region, they need an energy policy, too.

Source: economist.com



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