November 2020 by Le Monde diplomatique

Author:Le Monde diplomatique
Language: fra
Format: epub
Publisher: Le Monde diplomatique
Published: 2020-10-29T00:00:00+00:00

Opening ceremony at the Bzie-Dębina pit, Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Poland, September 2019

JP Black · LightRocket · Getty

‘There’s anxiety over energy’

Successive governments have presented coal as key to energy sovereignty. Galgóczi said, ‘There’s a real anxiety over energy and, well-founded or not, it stops Poland freeing itself from coal.’ This creates absurdities: to compensate for an uncompetitive domestic industry, Poland has had to source around 40% of its coal needs from Russia. This means coal infrastructure can continue to be maintained at lower cost, and the transition away from coal further postponed.

Some Polish communities are wholly dependent on coal mining, and pit closures are experienced as social disasters by those whose entire existence has been centred on the industry. When pits close, the survival of some still depends on ‘rathole mining’ in ‘poverty pits’, a dangerous, clandestine activity that is severely punished. Miners fear going from being the heroes of the industrial age to the left-behind of the environmental one; the working class are suspicious of a transition process steered by the EU with apparently little regard for their interests. The only way out of this impasse would be an ambitious scheme that combines social justice and environmental aims.

The European Green Deal, adopted in 2019, might be a contender: among its announced provisions is the creation of a Just Transition Fund (JTF) to finance the transition of regions that currently depend on polluting industries. But there are serious questions about the programme, especially its level of funding, which was increased from the initial proposal of €7.5bn to almost €40bn, but then scaled back in July; in negotiations over the Covid-19 recovery plan, the European Council has proposed €17.5bn.

The Polish government says this is not nearly enough. The undersecretary of state for climate, Adam Guibourgé-Czetwertyński, says the climate transition cannot take place without adequate funding: ‘There’s no point discussing a 2050 objective without financial backing. The European Commission estimates that more than €300bn a year will be needed across the EU just to achieve its 2030 objectives. And Poland has particular needs as, unlike other countries, we haven’t accumulated capital over several generations.’

There is a high risk that any increase in the JTF will be offset by reducing structural resources such as the Common Agriculture Policy and especially the Cohesion Fund, which benefits Central European states whose GDP is below the EU average (3). Galgóczi said, ‘The announcement of increased funding is welcome, but we need to be sure that this measure will complement, not replace, current Cohesion Fund budgets.’

The JTF should be used to support workers in fossil fuel industries and help them transfer to new jobs, but it currently looks more like a straightforward payout to the most reluctant countries. Paweł Wargan, coordinator for the Green New Deal for Europe campaign group, said, ‘The Fund does absolutely nothing to ensure that the money will actually trickle down and benefit the most vulnerable or those most affected by the transition.’

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