The EU must significantly relax its greenhouse emissions rules and put its confronting climate change on pause for the sake of energy security to ensure that the virus of neoimperialism does not develop in Europe’s backyard Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said on Monday.
PM Morawiecki argued in an opinion piece published in the Financial Times that the noble cause of combating climate change in the EU must take a backseat to the immediate goal of fighting Russia.
The Polish official’s criticism is primarily directed at the ETS, the European Union’s Emission Trading System which forces certain industries to buy allowances in a carbon market to produce greenhouse gas.
The system, which was established in 2005, envisages reducing the overall allowances over time in order to pressure major polluters, such as energy producers and airlines, to go green.
Poland, which recognizes the importance of fighting climate change, has long criticized the system for allegedly driving energy prices higher than necessary, especially in light of the fact that coal plants, which are significant producers of carbon dioxide, dominate in its state-owned energy sector.
The surge in prices in the ETS market, as Polish politicians have complained, is hurting consumers, prompting Morawiecki to reiterate their calls to reform the ETS. According to their claims, the allowance price increased from under €10 per metric ton of carbon in 2018 to above €90 in 2022 driven by the financial speculation on the emissions market.
Critics, however, have accused Poland of failing to account for the profits its government makes by selling allowances and of exaggerating the effect of the EU emissions trade on Polish utilities to mislead the public.
The European Securities and Markets Agency’s investigation of the allegations has allegedly found no market abuse with the European Central Bank claiming that the key factor making the allowances more costly is the introduction of increasingly stringent climate change policies in the EU.
Be the first to comment