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EU Funds to the rescue in Krakow – Local campaign leading the way for Polish communities sick of (and sick from) coal


As the now frankly absurd EU budget 2014-2020 stalemate staggers on in Brussels, it’s been heartening to get wind of what some of my former Bankwatch colleagues in Krakow have been achieving as part of the ‘Krakow Smog Alert’ campaign in Poland’s second largest city – and future EU budget money looks set to make a huge positive difference for people living in currently Europe’s third most polluted city.

Last winter, the time of year when the effects of coal burning are most acute (both outdoors and indoors – coal-burning in stoves, furnaces and boilers for heating is still widespread in the city during the winter months), concerned parents in Krakow had had enough of the peak smog’s impacts on their children’s health. By breathing Krakow’s air, the city’s inhabitants inhale the same amount of the highly carcinogenic benzo(a)pyrene as you would from smoking 2500 cigarettes a year (pdf).

Poor air quality in London continues to attract attention, as well as numerous campaigns. But let’s be clear – air quality in Krakow is 100 times worse!

A Facebook campaign called Krakow Smog Alert was thus launched, and quickly gained city-wide interest and support. Indeed, the overwhelming response in the first few weeks of the campaign created a sense of urgency and political space for local policy makers to seek real solutions for improved air quality in Krakow. The city’s doctors also rallied to the cause.

Air quality regulation experts subsequently visited in order to brainstorm solutions with local and regional officials, including the implementation of energy efficiency programmes.

A breakthrough moment duly arrived just a few weeks ago. On 30 September, the Malopolska regional parliament adopted an ambitious air quality programme, which includes a proposed banning of solid fuels (coal) heating for households in Krakow starting in 2018, and adopting a strategy to phase out coal use in the rest of the region. 

The plan – “An almost unthinkable outcome when we started the campaign”, my former colleague Andrzej Gula of the Institute for Environmental Economics, who helped launch and spearhead the initiative, tells me – includes the allocation of EUR 120 million from EU structural funds (for the forthcoming 2014-2020 EU budgetary period), as well as a sixfold increase of the local budget, in order to subsidise the replacement of coal stoves and improve the efficiency of public and residential buildings.

All of this (pdf) has been achieved in spite of the dominance of the coal industry in Poland’s energy sector. Not surprisingly, this pioneering effort, and the stunning progress made against all the odds, has been attracting attention from coal-affected citizens across Poland – from Gdansk in the north to neighbouring Zakopane, a top European mountain resort that also suffers from coal-induced pollution.

According to Andrzej, “If the Krakow Smog Alert campaign can be replicated in other Polish urban communities, then great. We are certainly ready to pass on advice, and hopefully others can benefit from our experience. Affected communities should be aware that, as the acute winter period is fast approaching, we are also entering a very opportune moment as far as future EU spending is concerned. At national and regional level, the authorities will shortly be finalising exactly how Poland spends its EU money for the 2014-2020 period. EU money stands to be a lifesaver – literally – in Krakow, and it should now be targeted at air quality measures, as well as domestic energy savings initiatives, all across Poland.”

As this blog has been in the making alas, the Krakow campaign has encountered something of a reality check. Just last week, to widespread outrage, the head of the Malopolska regional authority came out publicly with suggestions that the adopted air quality programme – including the coal ban in Krakow – is in doubt. This despite a 32 to 1 vote in favour of the programme in September.

Clearly Poland’s powerful coal lobby is – belatedly – catching up with the Krakow Smog Alert’s giant strides forward towards ensuring a healthy environment for the people of Krakow.

Ahead of voting on a legal resolution scheduled for late November, that would formally adopt the air quality programme and coal ban, Krakow’s campaigners will meet with the head of the regional authority today, in an attempt to convince him that there is no mistake: expert advice, 16,000 Krakowians and EU air quality targets (not to mention EU millions) all indicate that a be tter future for the city of Krakow is possible – a future without coal.

Oops … Poland did it again aka standing in the way of climate progress


“The European Commission wants to set new climate goals for 2030,” Polish Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Piechocinski told Wall Street Journal in an interview published on September 26. “There will be no permission for that on our part. We are willing to call for a referendum [on the issue] for the first time in Europe.”

Piechocinski’s statements came just a few days after European media reported on the contents of a Commission so-called non-paper summing up the outcomes of a public consultation over potential 2030 climate targets for the block.

You have to wonder what was on everyone’s minds when they made Warsaw the host of the COP 19 climate talks.

Read also

Groups petition Polish government to drop permit for Europe’s largest planned coal plant
Blog post | August 26, 2013

A comeback to Polish prime minister Tusk’s backing of coal
Blog post | September 13, 2013

“Move over Poland!” Czech parliament bids for EU ‘dirty energy’ crown, as renewables subsidies make way for fossil fuels
Blog post | September 16, 2013

Poland could violate law with new power plants – EU climate chief
RTCC | September 30, 2013

According to the document, Poland is the only country from those who commented to completely oppose the idea of an emissions reduction target for 2030. Countries like the Czech Republic and Romania took a more cautious – though still retrograde – approach, saying that they could accept targets for Europe if there is a global progressive agreement on emission cuts. But such an agreement would in its turn depend on a progressive committment from Europe.

So it looks like, once again, at least Poland, if not Poland joined by other CEE countries, will erect further barriers to European efforts on setting climate targets. In mid-2011, and again in the spring of 2012 the Polish government blocked a European Environmental Council meeting from signing on to stricter carbon emission targets for the EU – this was supposed to have seen an endorsement of the Commission’s 2050 Roadmap calling for a 40 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2030, a 60 percent cut by 2040 and an 80 percent cut by 2050, compared to 1990 levels.

Not in the least because of the Polish government, the EU currently does not have 2050 targets set in stone, just a general direction towards decarbonisation by the middle of the century.

According to environmental groups, an EU target of a 40 percent emissions cut by 2030 is far from sufficient anyway. Meeting the block’s long-term decarbonisation goal would need a much more ambitious target on renewables accompanied by a robust target on energy savings. A 40 percent emissions cut target on its own would merely give the impression Europe is advancing, but in reality this would not be enough to set the 28 member states on a reliable path to decarbonisation.

And now the Polish government is preparing to block even the moderate targets being pushed by the EU.

Blocking progress on international climate deal

Europe’s energy bad boy seems, too, to find it unproblematic to do such just as it is pretending to offer leadership on climate change negotiations in the run up to the November COP 19 in Warsaw. Again wider European exasperation can be expected as the hope has been that Europe would bring a strong pro-climate commitment to the negotiating table, one of the necessary elements for moving towards a global deal in the UN framework.

Threatening the prospects of a Paris 2015 deal on global emissions is particularly galling in the context of the recent conclusions of the IPCC report (pdf) which states that, unless emissions are curbed, there is a very strong probability of the planet warming by four degrees celsius this century, a figure that amounts to runaway climate change. Close to four degrees warming, the IPCC report outlines, equates to a very strong likelihood that Greenland would melt, resulting inevitably in a seven-metre high rise in sea levels.

Of course, Poland’s current government seems to care little about the climate or the international context. Poland is in very consistent pursuit of what its current government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, considers to be the necessary direction of development for the country: doing the minimum on renewables, continuing to rely heavily on coal for energy needs and hoping for shale gas fracking to eventually take off, despite continuing scepticism about the sector’s viability in Poland and elsewhere.

Regional backlash against renewables

Other countries in the region are pursuing similar paths, yet they are less vocal – and probably less potent – on the international scene.

This year, the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria have announced phase outs of subsidies for renewables, arguing that consumer energy prices have rocketed on account of this type of public support.

Yet this justification for cutting public support for renewables is merely a hypocritical attempt to cover up mistakes made by authorities in the planning of the support systems. In the Czech Republic, the tarrif regime introduced in 2007 to support the installation of photovoltaics ended up benefitting primarily major energy companies, such as Czech national behemoth ČEZ.

In Romania, rising energy prices for consumers is no more than a myth. Renewables support did not bring a significant price increase for consumers; it did, however, increase costs for majorenergy consumers such as steel producer Arcelor Mittal and aluminium producer Alro, which then in turn pressured the government to lower prices for them.

In Bulgaria, real increases in consumer prices, felt acutely by the poorer sections of the population, were blamed by the authorities on subsidies for renewables, but in reality were caused by investments in new expensive coal capacities, subsidies for unreformed district heating systems and very bad deals on oil and gas supplies.

It seems, therefore, that CEE governments are using renewables as a scapegoat to confuse the public and to conceal the high costs of inefficient energy systems overreliant on fossil fuels, when in fact renewables could constitute the solution to these decade old problems.

And now, in a reflection of domestic energy sector developments, the CEE region – regrettably under Polish leadership – risks blocking EU progress towards decarbonisation. By doing so, the region risks jeopardising an excellent opportunity to use European funds and technical expertise in order to revamp carbon intensive economies and prepare for future competitiveness.

The taking of such positions during European Council meetings or UN negotiations only adds further risks to the already shaky potential of a meaningful international climate agreement.

You have to wonder what was on everyone’s minds when they made Warsaw the host of the COP 19 climate talks.

[Campaign update] Growing solidarity with local communities in Georgia puts Khudoni dam in spotlight


We recently reported how local opposition against the Khudoni hydropower plant project in Georgia is being stifled by government figures and how people were intimidated to avoid negative reporting on the subject. The native communities in the Svaneti region are protesting against the project which would expel them from their land and way of living.

The dedication of the Svan communities has triggered solidarity across the country. While protests against the Khudoni dam are becoming a regular feat, many famous supporters have now joined the protests publicly.

Rallies against Khudoni took place on Tuesday, October 2 in Tbilisi, Mestia (an important town in Svaneti) and Kaishi (one of the towns to be flooded). In Mestia, representatives of different communities from Svaneti and environmentalists gathered in front of the State Office and demanded to stop the Khudoni dam project.

Hydropower development in Georgia

Ethnic Svan communities in the beautiful Svaneti mountains face being resettled for a project that is unnecessary.

Find out more

On a visit to Kaishi the Georgian Ombudsman reminded the government that the majority of the local population is against the project as it is planned right now. He highlighted the necessity of dialogue:

“It is very important for me that the opinion of each villager of Khaishi and Svaneti will be taken into account by the government.”

A group of almost all well-known Georgian writers have expressed their opposition to the project. Lasha Tabukashvili even considers going ahead with the project criminal and invokes Georgians’ responsibility for the future of their own country:

“If we do not fight against this project right now we will have to apologise for not standing up against this criminal project and for our future generations.”

Locals affected by the Khudoni dam not only fear being resettled away from the beautiful mountain region they call home. They also have no reason to trust the government’s promises that “resettlements will be conducted according to highest possible standards in the world” (Ilia Eloshvili, Deputy Minister of Energy, Source [KA]). Land rights have only very weak protection in Georgia and authorities have blocked Svans from registering their property in recent years. Many land plots that were under customary use by the Svans have been sold off for one dollar to the Khudoni investor Transelectrica, a company registered in a tax haven.

In addition, the Minister of Energy Kakha Kaladze has been criticised for a potential conflict of interests since he has invested in Georgia’s energy and natural resources sector before joining the government one year ago.

Father George, a local priest of Chuberi and Khaishi expressed the powerlessness and anger of the local population:

“We are asking Minister Kaladze, do not think that you are the owner of everything here, including nature, otherwise the pain that we Svans are experiencing will move over you” (Source [KA])

Already more than 200 people took an oath against the project. Manana Saghliani, one of the villagers even threatened to commit suicide [KA] by self-immolation at the project site should the project proceed.

While protests are ongoing, the Ministry of Energy has so far not indicated to change course regarding Khudoni.

* Campaign updates on the Bankwatch blog highlight news from projects we monitor as well as from our member groups and partners.

In Georgia, dam builders do not welcome peoples’ concerns


Svaneti, a Georgian region full of gorgeous mountains 5 000 metres high makes an overwhelming impression on any visitor. Svans, the indigenous people of Svaneti, live in the mountains since the days of Greek Geographer Strabo. But more than 2000 of them may lose their homes as Georgian officials are selling off their land to international investors to enable the construction of the Khudoni hydropower plant – a 700 megawatt, USD 1.2 billion project.

Last week, I joined my Georgian colleague Dato Chipashvili on a trip to Svaneti and had to witness how little chance locals have to make their opposition heard before the project is being pushed through against their will.

The most immediate impact of Khudoni dam is the flooding of several settlements and the inevitable resettlement of more than 2000 native Svans from the area (one sixth to one seventh of the population of Upper Svaneti), who have resisted the project for 30 years already.

Hydropower development in Georgia

Ethnic Svan communities in the beautiful Svaneti mountains face being resettled for a project that is unnecessary.

Find out more

The connection to their land is strong among the Svans, which is no surprise considering the beauty of the region. But land rights have been a problematic issue in Georgia. While in recent years local authorities have blocked Svans from registering their property, many land plots under customary use by the Svans have been sold off for one dollar to the investor Transelectrica, a company that is registered in a tax haven and that has been criticised for its non-transparent ownership.

The public hearing: a chance for locals to be heard – in theory

Since the Khudoni project hopes for funding from multilateral development banks (the World Bank has been involved, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has been approached), or international banks who follow Equator Principles, locals have to be involved in the decision making according to “international standards” for public participation. Yet, what I saw was below any imaginable standard.

On September 17, a public hearing for the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) of the Khudoni dam took place in the town of Khaishi, that will be flooded along with several other settlements. The public hearing should (in theory) inform developers, investors and Georgian decision-makers whether and how well the interests of affected communities or environment are being taken into account in the project decision and design. The Ministry for Environmental Protection and Natural Resources can, on the basis of the ESIA documentation, block the project.

The way the meeting was organised and held, however, showed that the interest of locals are rather seen as a hindrance for than as a part of Georgia’s development.

Intimidation

The Georgian government is so vehemently promoting the swift implementation of the Khudoni project that it is hard to imagine how local opposition can have a voice. A TV statement by Prime minister Ivanishvili the day before public hearing make this more than obvious:

“The Khudoni hydro power plant should be built, like many other hydropower plants. […] Do not believe to the opponents; they only make noise; they can’t do anything else but to stir noise. We should continue the construction of hydropower plants with the view that they are needed for our country and for its future.”

Locals told us that on the same day the director of Transelectrica Paata Tsereteli and the deputy head of the regional police department Giga Khufacaria visited a local meeting in Kaishi to warn locals not to “disturb” the public hearing and not use posters or banners against the project.

Police presence

Policemen had gathered at the local police station since the morning of the meeting. Some of them were even equipped with machine guns, and approximately 40 were not from Kaishi. When I asked the police spokesperson why so many of them had gathered at the time of a public hearing he told me this was regular meeting of police from the region and that it happens every month.

Villagers who overheard this told me later that they had never seen so many policemen in their police station. Numerous policemen were later also present in the meeting room – a fact that could have been intimidating to local participants.

Bad organisation

The meeting room was too small to accommodate the large number of participants. Seating opportunities were very limited, even though there were large number elderly people or people with young children. The locals therefore requested for the meeting to take place in front of the building, but without adequate sound equipment, this did not improve the situation significantly.

After 3 hours, the meeting resumed inside, but hardly any locals had came to the room and it was filled with representatives of the investor, consultants, government officials and most of the police officers. The locals who boycotted presentation that started inside feared that this situation could be misused by investor and asked to end the meeting.

That the sponsor of a USD 1.2 billion project is not able or willing to arrange for a proper location and a few benches speaks volumes about the willingness to engage with affected communities.

Confrontational and unaccommodating approach by government officials

Half an hour before the public hearing, deputy minister of energy Ilia Eloshvilli told the people gathered in front of the building that “the dam will be built anyway” – a vivid example of how government officials don’t take the ESIA decision making process and thus environmental and social safeguards seriously.


Deputy minister of energy Ilia Eloshvilli surrounded by locals.

The fierce interest of Georgian authorities in the project further became apparent during the meeting, when Eloshvilli – and not the representatives of the investor – became the main speaker and argued heatedly with everyone raising concerns instead of listening to people whose homes are to be bulldozed by the project.

Ulterior motives of officials?


David Mirtskhulava (left), the technical Director of Transelectrica and former minister of energy.

That the Ministry of Energy takes such a hard-line approach on the Khudoni dam and doesn’t consider other alternatives (like the rehabilitation of other Georgian dams, or building a smaller dam as locals propose) has raised question about the motives of officials and some speculate about corruption or future posts in the project company. There is a wide revolving door between Georgia’s energy sector and its political class: A former minister of energy, David Mirtskhulava – who used to be called the “Minister of No-Electricity” because of frequent black-outs during his term – is now the technical director of Transelectrica. The current minister Kakha Kaladze, a former football player, was (and potentially still is) an investor in Georgia’s energy and natural resources sector.

While statements by Georgian officials are full of Georgia’s national interest, the people in Khaishi, Vedi, Tobari and other settlements are left on their own. They need to collect money if they want their roads to be repaired, they apparently maintain their electricity grids by themselves. Their land was sold to the investor for one dollar and their ears are filled with empty promises that defy the official rhetoric. It is no surprise then, that people in Svaneti passionately oppose the project.

Guest post: Polish open pit lignite mine in Lubin challenged in front of Constitutional Court

The Lubin municipality in south-western Poland, under threat by Polish government plans to build a new open-pit lignite mine, is taking its case to the Polish Constitutional Court.

The Lubin community, supported by legal NGO Environmental Law Service, claims that the Concept for the National Spatial Planning, approved by the government in 2011 and which prohibits any new investments on the area of the deposit in order to “protect” the resources, is unconstitutional as it infringes property rights.

According to the ELS legal analysis (pdf) the Concept collides with five articles of the Polish Constitution, three acts of parliament and two acts of international law.

The doubtful legality of plans to build this new open-pit mine has been for the last three years also under scrutiny of European Parliaments Petitions Committee after inhabitants of Lubin submitted a petition (pdf) to the European Parliament against open-pit mining in their region in 2010.

In May this year representatives of the Committee came on a fact finding mission to the Dolnoslaskie voivodship in Poland where the lignite deposits are.

On Sept. 17, during a public session in Brussels, the EP Committee presented publicly a draft report on the issue following the mission, focusing particularly on issues related to environmental protection and public consultations. According to Polish media, the Euro-parliamentarians were particularly critical towards Polish government for ignoring the results of a local that took place in 2009 and during which a majority of citizens opposed plans for the open-pit mine.

„The Concept of the National Spatial Planning pursues the protection of the lignite deposit in absolute terms, with no restrictions as regards to timing or subject matter,” comments Tomasz Wlodarski, director of Ecological Law Service in Poland. „It therefore fundamentally breaches the right of ownership because areas under such type of protection cannot be used for any new investments nor sold.

Wlodarski: „This law actually constitutes a form of expropriation of the citizens. Under no circumstances should it be assumed that it is in the public interest to exploit all lignite resources in this country.”

Irena Rogowska, governor of Lubin and president of the coalition „Development YES, Open-pit mines NO” (the coalition brings together local communities, local government representatives and environmental NGOs from five Polish regions threatened by Poland’s new lignite open-pit mine development plans): „It is absurd that a future investor can decide over the fate of property in our region, and not our community, our citizens. From communist times already we’ve seen that the protection of this deposit means the end of local development and the slow destruction of our livelihoods.”

“Move over Poland!” Czech parliament bids for EU ‘dirty energy’ crown, as renewables subsidies make way for fossil fuels


No sooner had Polish prime minister Donald Tusk reaffirmed his preference for fossil fuels last week – “The future of Polish energy is in brown and black coal, as well as shale gas”, he told an audience last week in Katowice – than the Czech Senate approved a bill on Friday to revise the country’s renewable energy legislation that will not only seriously undermine the development of clean energy but, stunningly, will also provide a major boost to energy plants that burn fossil fuels.

This Kafkaesque situation, that has swept through both chambers of the Czech parliament at breakneck speed, also has worrying implications for the upcoming deployment of EU budget money intended for low-carbon projects and initiatives.

The political scene in the Czech Republic has been hamstrung for some months now, with the latest major scandal – there have been more than a few in the last fifteen years – bringing down a fragile and deeply unpopular coalition government over the summer. The latest round of parliamentary elections are set to take place in October, following a messy no confidence vote against President Milos Zeman’s hastily convened interim government.

Yet despite politics effectively being on hold in the country, this newly proposed law that will redraw the Czech Republic’s approach to renewable energy – environmental groups and renewable industry groups fear that the legislation will bring the development of the Czech renewables sector to a standstill – has whistled through the parliament, and now awaits inevitable sign-off from Zeman.

Renewables backlash

What explains all of this?

According to a spokesman for the country’s dominant, 70 percent state-owned energy giant ČEZ, “Definitely we welcome (today’s Senate decision), it’s a step in the right direction, to gradually limit the spiral of support for renewable energy which has deformed the entire market”.

This ‘deformation’ of the Czech energy market, stemming from the introduction of generous feed-in tariffs – subsidies – for solar photovoltaics in 2007, is not an incorrect summation, yet it conceals a host of other factors.

Though never acknowledged by the likes of ČEZ and other major energy players, the ill-conceived feed-in tariff that has catalysed the Czech ‘solar boom’ in recent years did distort the energy market and bring about public anger towards renewables because of rising electricity bills – but this was precisely down to the tariff regime encouraging major energy investors, including CEZ, to move massively into photovoltaics, assured as they were by guaranteed, highly advantageous rates of return.

And if the public were getting it in the neck through rising bills that picked up the cost of the feed-in tariff regime, the government of the day dithered over taking action that could have stemmed big energy’s solar bonanza. Indeed, the minister of industry at the time, Vladimír Tošovský, is a former director of ČEZ Trade.

External criticism…

When the proposals to revise the ‘supported energy sources law’ came to light some months back, they were criticised by the International Energy Agency (pdf) – and it’s not hard to see why.

In line with big energy’s successful ‘punishment’ narrative for genuine renewable energy, feed-in tariffs for wind and solar energy will now be phased out. Eligibility for subsidy support will apply instead only to hydro power (up to 10 MW), combined heat and power plants (including existing plants using coal and gas) and so-called ‘secondary sources’ – this will see the subsidising of biomass used in waste incinerators, hence providing the unsustainable, and unpopular, incineration sector with a vital boost. In financial terms, under the new law support for incineration and fossil fueled CHPs is estimated at CZK 1.8 billion, or EUR 72 million (pdf).

Support for electricity production from all other sources of energy will cease as of one minute past midnight, January 1, 2014.

… external support?

And it’s precisely at that moment when we will enter the new EU budgetary period for 2014-2020.

My expectations, as well as those of other Czech environment groups, about the next seven year spending period’s potential to boost our clean energy development have been cautiously optimistic. After all, we’ve seen at the EU member state level a determination to channel 20 percent of future EU spending at low carbon projects and initiatives.

However, the new fossil-fuel heavy preferences laid out in the revised renewables law have already been reflected in EU spending proposals under the Czech Republic’s main programming line for ‘renewables’, the so-called Operation Programme for Enterprise and Innovation for Competitiveness (OP EIC).

EU funding support of roughly EUR 1.3 billion for supposed ‘low carbon economy’ measures is most definitely being sought by the Czech Republic’s big energy fish for carbon intensive energy production.

OP EIC has clearly been targeted by the Czech Heating Association, one of the most powerful lobbies in the country that includes ČEZ, other major energy suppliers (including some coal power plants), as well as the owners or developers of waste incinerators. The Association’s CEO is none other than former prime minister Mirek Topolánek, forced to resign from office a few years ago after yet another embarrassing scandal. As Czechs say of our disgraced politicians, ‘They may exit out the door, but sure enough they’ll be back through the window.’

A double heist, then, is shaping up under the guise of ‘clean energy’ support – both at the national level, via the soon to be rolled out new feed-in tariff scheme, and potentially through subsequent EU funds support. It is absolutely imperative that the European Commission, in its EU budget negotiations with the Czech authorities before the end of the year, is alive – and wise – to what is being attempted.

Not only are these developments extremely bad for the environment, but the ‘double heist’ scenario is also bearing down on the Czech public.

Fed the line that they are being allowed to escape from the chains of high cost, publicly subsidised renewables, the new law will still be a burden – only now they are about to start feeling the feed-in tariff for waste incineration, the co-burning of biomass and coal-based combined heat and power plants, not only in their pockets but also in their environment.

Watch an interview with Jan Habart of the Czech biomass association speak more to the implications of the new renewables law