2024-11-04 14:43 update: 2024-11-04, 14:48
Photo PAP/Tomasz Wojtasik
Poland's current pro-EU government is determined to spend proceeds from emission rights on green transition, reversing the policy of the previous nationalist-leaning cabinet which made hardly any investments in emissions reduction, the climate minister has said.
The government will seek to spend up to 100 percent of emission rights funds on green transition, Paulina Hennig-Kloska, the climate minister, said on Monday.
She criticised her predecessors for not fulfilling their obligations.
A report published by the Supreme Audit Office (NIK) last week revealed that between the years 2013-2023, only 1.3 percent of the total PLN 94 billion (EUR 21.64 billion) budget was spent on green energy.
The socially-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party was in power for most of the time, in 2015-2023. During its time in office, PiS was often critical of the EU's green transition goals and argued Poland needed more time to phase out coal-fired power plants.
"I negotiate every day with the minister of finance...so we could use 100 percent of our emission rights funds for the green transition," the minister said.
She went on to say that "this is part of our coalition agreement, but also it is a European Union requirement."
According to Henning-Kloska, Poland's energy mix should comprise higher shares of solar and wind power, but before the goal is attained, Poland still needs its energy from coal sources. (PAP)
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