How much will Poland have to invest to achieve climate neutrality by 2050? As it turns out, we're talking about an amount that could make your head spin.
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Climate neutrality is a concept that has been around for a long time in the discussion of the energy transition, and how Poland and other countries of the Old Continent should change in order to achieve the goals set by the European Union within a certain time.
The whole thing had its beginning in 2018, when the low-carbon strategy was adopted. All this, in turn, was included in the document, which is known as "A Clean Planet for All."
What is climate neutrality?
But what does climate neutrality mean? In short, it is to bring greenhouse gas emissions and absorption into balance. The project, in turn, is regarded as an almost civilizational challenge, which will require, first of all, a shift away from the use of fossil fuels for energy production, and thus a radical change in the current operating model of the energy sector.
It was about all these issues that we talked to our next distinguished guest - Daniel Szewczuk of Green Climate. In his opinion, all these transformations have to start with people's attitudes. - It's not that someone is not affected. If you have an office, a car or a computer, you simply generate a carbon footprint and you have to report it - he said.
Szewczuk is also well aware that all these transformations will not be among the cheapest operations. - According to reports I've been able to access, Poland would have to make an investment of 380 billion euros to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. We are, of course, talking about a certain process - he added.
What is clear is that getting on this path may be quite easy and cheap at first, but the real stairs will only start later. - One should be aware that we will reduce more, and then the whole process will be harder. This means that this effort at later stages will cost a little differently - Szewczuk admitted.
Do we have no choice?
It is worth recalling at this point that Poland is among the top countries in the European family that emit the most carbon dioxide equivalents into the atmosphere.
- I looked not long ago at the emission data, it was in 2017 that Poland as a country emitted 380 megatons of CO2E, which put us then in third place in the European Union - he continued.
One of the first steps we should take will definitely be to start transforming the electric power system. - This system of ours is built in such a way that we operate largely on coal-fired power. As much as 55 percent of this energy comes from coal - he concluded.
