Poland balks at cost of EU’s green target

The “Fit for 55” plan to further slash CO2 emissions may cost Poland around EUR 190 billion, according to analysts at the state-owned Polish bank Pekao.

The EU’s original target had been to cut reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by the end of the decade, compared to 1990 levels. However, the Pekao report estimates that Fit for 55 will cost Poland EUR 527.5 billion by 2030, compared to projections of EUR 338 billion for the earlier “Fit for 40” scheme, according to business daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, which obtained the document. 

The Fit for 55 plan – currently being discussed in Brussels – would mean Poland having to reduce its annual Emissions Trading Scheme allowance by 4.2%, rather than 2.2%. This would necessitate energy sector investments (estimated at EUR 186 billion cost), domestic energy efficiency schemes (approaching EUR 100 billion), and CO2 emissions (approximately EUR 33 billion). 

Ernest Pytlarczyk, Pekao’s chief economist, noted last year’s green investment of 415 billion zloty equated to 17% of Poland’s GDP, whereas earlier the annual figure had exceeded 20%. Fit for 55 would mean returning to that level of expenditure, he explained. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, chairman of Poland’s eurosceptic ruling party Law and Justice earlier dismissed the EU’s environmental policies as “madness”, however.