The return to power of Polish prime minister Donald Tusk could see one of Europe's least enthusiastic supporters of climate action in recent years throw its weight behind a radical new 2040 emissions reduction target, but erstwhile ally Hungary signalled scepticism at an informal ministerial summit.
ADVERTISEMENTPoland’s new government has promised a new coal phase-out date as it signalled support for a 90% reduction in net greenhouse gas output across the EU by 2040, but former ally Hungary showed signs of scepticism as environment ministers gathered for informal talks chaired by Belgium.
“I want to emphasize that I’m coming here with a message of Poland stepping up its efforts on the fight with climate change,” state secretary at the Polish climate and environment ministry Urszula Zielinska said on Monday (15 January), promising faster, smoother cooperation in the EU and “more confident” work on climate policy from Poland’s three-party coalition.
Zielinska – appointed last month by centre-right prime minister Donald Tusk, who has promised to restore democratic norms and repair international relations strained under eight years of rule by the national conservative Law and Justice party – said climate change was “the one single most important challenge we all face in Europe”.
“We need to embrace the 90% emission reduction target,” Zielinska told reporters on the way into the meeting in Brussels, adding: “We cannot go on like this, Europe, all the rest of the world – we’re not meeting the safe climate targets right now." Warsaw would be pushing EU leaders to pay due attention to helping citizens through what Brussels has dubbed a “just transition” to green energy – especially in the east of the bloc, she said, recognising that opponents of ambitious climate goals sometimes have “very solid social arguments”.
Poland was approaching the target “cautiously” but “very constructively”, the junior minister elaborated. “We will be doing everything to achieve this target if [it] is agreed,” she said. The European Commission is due to publish on 6 February an impact assessment into potential 2040 targets, with the EU’s independent scientific advisory panel having stated that greenhouse gas emissions must be no more than 10% of what they were fifty years earlier if the bloc is to stand a realistic chance of achieving its ‘net-zero’ objective by mid-century.
Zielinska also confirmed that Poland – which relies on coal for over three-quarters of its electricity and much of its heating – would set a concrete date for the phase out of the fossil fuel in the national energy and climate plan that all EU countries must finalise by the end of June. “We must do it very soon,” she added, stressing the importance of a concrete deadline to allow industry and people to plan for the transition.
Rather different signals were given by Anikó Raisz, state secretary for environment of Hungary, whose government led by the confrontational Viktor Orbán lost its closest ally in the EU Council with the defeat of the Law and Justice Party. Budapest believed that “realistic solutions” and “achievable targets” had to be agreed, Raisz said when asked if she supported a 90% emissions reduction target.
“As we consider this question to be so important, both for society and the economy, we think that the final decisions shall be taken [at] the level of the European Council,” Raisz said, referring to the forum comprising EU heads of government that Tusk chaired from for 2014 to 2019, which does not directly enact EU law and in which individual member states enjoy a veto that Hungary has shown itself more than ready to use in recent years
EU commissioner for climate action Wopke Hoekstra said he expected a “fruitful discussion on 2040” at the first meeting of environment minister under the Belgian EU Council presidency. “What is crystal clear all across the union, is that there is no alternative than to respect the red lines of the planet,” he said when asked if he expected support for the 90% target that he has promised to defend. “They are not my red lines, they are not the red lines of the Commission [or] of any individual minister,” the Dutch politician said.
The ministerial summit was scheduled to run until midday on Tuesday, with discussions covering climate adaptation and resilience, just transition, and EU circular economy policy.
