PL
EN
Brussels was the venue of the “Balancing Coal and Climate: What is a ‘just’ Energy transition?” conference. The meeting was opened by Mr Filip Grzegorczyk, President of the Management Board of the Grupa Tauron and Vice-President of the Polish Electricity Association.
President Grzegorczyk responded to the question as to what a just energy transition in Poland should look like. “Poland is going up in the rankings of the share of RES in the energy mix. Tauron is the champion of this transition. Poland is number seven among the countries with respect to the number of wind farms” – he pointed out.
“Will this be enough? In the context of the just energy transition, the most important is how far further we can afford to go” – continued Filip Grzegorczyk. “For many, the decarbonisation is not a radical idea but to us it is. We have 80 percent of energy coming from coal. The ambitious plans of the European Commission are actually radical to Poland.”
The President of Tauron reminded that one of the main objectives of Poland is to preserve the stability of supply and the affordable prices of energy. “We must also respond to the challenge of energy poverty. We have to keep in mind that 60 percent of Poles earn not more than 500 euros per month. Can we expect them to pay more for energy and will it be just?” – rhetorically asked Mr Grzegorczyk.
“We accept the general goals of the Union’s policy but we have to have the money to implement it. With such high prices of the CO2 emissions, the transition of energy industry companies will be an even greater challenge” – he warned.
“We need to carry forward the call of ‘united in diversity for the power sector’. We want to change the power sector, but our way, as it is the only way that will be effective and socially acceptable” – concluded his address Mr Filip Grzegorczyk, President of the Grupa Tauron and Vice-President of the PKEE.
