Poland has taken legal action against a set of EU climate policies by filing a case with the Courts of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) claiming that the laws lack adequate assessment, exceed the authority of the EU to implement, and pose a threat to the country’s economy and energy security.
Warsaw is the set of climate laws which were approved over the last few months in efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions as much as 55% below 1990 levels by 2030 dubbed ‘Fit for 55’.
Included in the laws Poland wants to see overturned is an agreement on banning the sale of new combustion engine cars by 2025.
It was reported that in addition to this the Polish government also wants to see the overturn of a recently passed law on land use and forestry (LULUCF), and another law affecting pollution allowances in the EU’s carbon market stability reserve.
Polish Minister for Climate and the Environment, Anna Moskwa, has previously stated that Warsaw, “will demand a change in the legal basis, that is, a de facto decision of the EU court of justice, that all the decisions were taken erroneously, on the basis of an erroneous formal legal basis, and thus are invalid documents,”
The Polish administration had also taken issue with the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme which extended carbon levies on transport and heating fuels which MEPs have warned will likely lead to a rise in energy bills.
On the filing of the legal proceedings at the end of last month, Mowska said, “Today we submitted three more complaints to the #CJEU – regarding the ban on registering combustion vehicles after 2035, increasing the EU greenhouse gas emission reduction target and reducing the number of free ETS available on the market.”
“EU proposals may threaten the energy security of our country, which we cannot agree to. Does the EU want to authoritatively decide what vehicles Poles will drive and to increase energy prices in Poland? The Polish government will not allow Brussels to dictate,” she said.
In October last year it was reported that Poland had signed multi billion euro deals to go nuclear with the US and South Korea, with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki saying that “Nuclear energy is safe, clean and green and complements the green transition and renewable energy sources,”
In July, the country approved its first nuclear power plant with Minister Mowska saying the decision brings Poland “closer to the moment when the first Polish nuclear power plant will start operating and producing electricity, ensuring appropriate volume of power working in the base of the electricity system in 2030.”
World Nuclear News reported that, “Poland currently has large-scale plans to develop nuclear energy capacity. In September 2021, it was announced that six large pressurised water reactors with a combined installed capacity of 6-9 GWe could be built by 2040 as part of the country’s plan to reduce its reliance on coal.”
“According to the adopted schedule, the construction of the first nuclear power plant will start in 2026, with the first reactor – with a capacity of 1.0-1.6 GWe – being commissioned in 2033. Subsequent units will be implemented every 2-3 years. The coastal towns of Lubiatowo and Kopalino in Poland’s Choczewo municipality in the province of Pomerania were named as the preferred location for the country’s first large nuclear power plant,” it said.