Poland's environmental politics

Green growls in Poland

Eight of Warsaw's most influential think tank experts have just published an open letter [link in Polish] arguing that ahead of Poland's EU presidency, which starts in six weeks, the government is neglecting climate-change issues. The letter matters, because its signatories directly influence planning for the six-month presidency, during which a UN climate change conference will take place in Durban. 

Entitled: "The forgotten conference", the letter urges Poland to pay more attention to the event. It bemoans the fact that Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski’s annual statement to Parliament in March 2011 did not mention the meeting and that climate-change issues are absent from Poland’s presidency priorities.

These omissions suggest that Poland is failing to take climate change seriously even as negotiations on the issue have moved far beyond the confines of environmental policy and now touch on global economic, social and political relations especially between the rich and less developed countries. The climate conference in Durban is where the negotiations will take place as to what is to happen once the Kyoto protocol runs its course requiring a new worldwide agreement on lowering CO₂ emissions. In Durban, Poland will be co-responsible for coordinating a common UE position on climate.

That may be a tad optimistic: much of the foreign-policy planning now stems from Brussels, rather than from the rotating presidency.

Still, it continues:

the Polish government appears to view proposals put forward by those who want to radically limit CO₂ emissions as a threat to our economy. But this approach itself marks a threat. Firstly, the EU’s Presidency role is to act as an arbiter in disputes between member states. The presidency should not take sides. Those responsible for the Polish presidency would do well to remember this. Secondly, the EU is concerned to play a leading role in the fight against climate change in Durban. Were Poland to take the role of a country which neglects the issue or indeed treats it as a threat to its well being and consequently acts as a brake on the proceedings then our position in the EU will suffer. Our presidency’s achievements in other fields will be dimmed.

The signatories are:

• Krzysztof Bobinski – President of Union&Poland Foundation;
• Malgorzata Bonikowska – Editor of THINKTANK Magazine; 
• Zbigniew Czachor – Director, Centre of European Research and Education; 
• Grzegorz Gromadzki – independent expert; 
• Jacek Kucharczyk - President of the Executive Board, The Institute of Public Affairs; 
• Bartek Nowak – Executive Director, Center for International Relations;
• Jan Pieklo – Director, Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation PAUCI; and
• Pawel Swieboda – President of demosEuropa-Centre for European Strategy