A senior Polish official has called on t he European Union to scrap its Emissions Trading System (ETS) or exempt Poland from the scheme, which helps combat global warming, to free up funds for Warsaw to fight the effects of the coronavirus.
Under the ETS, the EU charges for the right to emit carbon dioxide.
Reuters Newsagency reports European power generators, industrial emitters and airlines running flights within the EU must buy permits to cover their emissions.
“The results of fighting coronavirus, COVID19, will be painful. It is obvious that countries will be looking for extra money to help their business and citizens,” Janusz Kowalski, Deputy Minister of State Assets, told Reuters.
“Poland and other countries should take care of the climate on their own, and the ETS should be removed from January 1, 2021, or at least Poland should be excluded from the system.”
The coronavirus has killed five people and infected 205 in Poland, which has barred foreigners from entering, shut schools and capped public gatherings at 50 people.
Mr Kowalski suggested the government could discuss the proposal after the coronavirus has peaked.
“This will be the time for taking various unconventional, political decisions on all levels,” Mr Kowalski said.
Poland generates most of its electricity from coal.
Mr Kowalski said he would expect other states in central and eastern Europe to support the proposal.
Poland is the only EU state that refused at a December summit to commit to climate neutrality by 2050.
At the same time the Czech prime minister, Andrej Babiš, said on Monday the EU should focus for now on fighting the coronavirus rather than its “Green Deal” policy package to tackle climate change, and Mr Kowalski said he agreed.
Reuters reports that asked about Mr Kowalski’s remarks, the EU executive, the European Commission, said it could not speculate on the potential implications of COVID19, the respiratory illness the virus causes, in individual policy areas.
“While our immediate focus is on combating COVID-19, our work on delivering the European Green Deal continues.
“The climate crisis is still a reality and necessitates our continued attention and efforts,” an EC spokesman said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a EC official went further, insisting efforts would continue to enshrine the climate friendly growth plan in EU law.
“The climate crisis is still a reality, and necessitates our continued attention and efforts,” the source said.
“This is one of the very reasons why we presented the climate law: to avoid that climate action, a generational task, is obfuscated by more pressing and immediate challenges.”
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