By 15th of May PGE – Poland’s largest energy utility – will open a belated lignite-fired unit in Turow power plant on the border with Czechia and Germany. Greenpeace Poland activists criticized the state-controlled company with a night screening on the unit saying ‘climate crisis fuelled by PGE”. Poland’s lack of coal phase out plan also undermines the EU 2030 climate target.
– It is outrageous that it’s 2021 and Poland is still opening a new coal unit. Poland is the EU’s second largest coal consumer and one of the last EU countries which haven’t set a coal exit date. Yet, instead of planning a just energy transition, our government is still looking for new life lines for coal at the expense of the citizens. This coal addiction is detrimental to the Polish people that are footing the bill and also threatens the EU climate target – said Joanna Flisowska, head of Climate and Energy Unit at Greenpeace Poland.
New unit in Turow power plant which cost 4.3 billion zloty (~1 bln EUR) is part of a wave of new coal fired units which were built in Poland in the past years (Kozienice 1075 MW – opened in 2017, Opole 2x 900MW – 2019, Jaworzno 910 MW – 2020, Turow – 496 MW). New unit will emit an estimated 2.7 million tonnes of CO2 per year which equals the carbon footprint of two and a half million passenger cars or nine million return flights between Warsaw and Athens. Recently the Polish government issued a mining license for Turow lignite mine which allows it to continue its operation until 2044.
– Opening the new unit and plans to continue burning coal in Turow not only undermine the climate action but also go against the interest of the local community. It is beyond obvious that the mine cannot work until 2044, as PGE and the Polish government claim. This is highly irresponsible. Without a coal phase-out plan for the Turow coal complex the region will lose EU funds for just transition. It’s high time that the Polish government takes the responsibility and sets a coal phase out plan – said Anna Meres, coal campaigner at Greenpeace Poland.
Recent analysis of Polish energy strategy until 2040 shows that due to lack of ambition Poland can single-handedly hamper the EU’s climate goal for 2030. [1] In 2020 ca. 70% of electricity in Poland came from coal. Three Polish coal power plants (Belchatow, Kozienice and Opole) are among TOP10 carbon dioxide emitters in the EU. Last year Greenpeace Poland sued PGE GiEK (subsidiary of PGE) for its climate impact. [2] In 2018 PGE’s coal power plants emitted 57 million tonnes of carbon dioxide – surpassing the carbon footprint of the whole economies of Portugal, Greece or Hungary.
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[1] Ember: Disappointing lack of ambition in Poland’s Energy Policy until 2040: https://ember-climate.org/commentary/2021/03/15/pep2040/
[2] https://www.greenpeace.org/international/press-release/29273/greenpeace-poland-sues-largest-carbon-emitter-in-the-country/