All Polish governments since the 1990s have been grappling with the suffering of the domestic coal industry and yet all, adding up to the existing one, have failed to impose restructuring plans.
“We believe that these proposals are unlikely to be put into effect without the full approval of industry unions,” Karol Manys, spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin, said Tuesday after several hours of talks between the government and mining union leaders in Katowice, southern Poland.
Poland produces about 80% of its electricity from coal and is the only EU member committed to unbiased carbon until 2050. The European Commission has proposed linking its EUR 750 billion ($850 billion) economic stimulus programme to the EU programme. weather targets.
Saving the sector had been a commitment by the ruling Party for Law and Justice (PiS) in the recent elections of 2019 and 2020. But some idea that the government would bite the ball and use the political capital it amassed behind outgoing president Andrzej Duda. PiS-ally, won the July presidential election to reform the sector. Hopes also arose after Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki created a new climate ministry last November and installed a technocrat, Michal Kurtyka, former president of the UN COP24 climate negotiations, to lead it.
Andrzej Hesitates after July’s Polish presidential election
“Once we couldn’t expand renewable energy sources,” Morawiecki said. “But now we can’t not expand them.” Things seem to have changed since then. Morawiceki and Duda are noted as relatively liberal reformers within the PiS, unlike the elder party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, whose instincts remain completely protectionist.
The plans on the shelf
Twelve coal mines were closed in June for 3 weeks due to the spread of COVID-19 and after lengthy negotiations, the unions agreed to the miners’ paintings and paid 20% for the month of May. But the Solidarity union also warned the government that without state aid, the industry would collapse. Of the more than 36,000 COVID-19 cases reported in Poland, about 6,500 are lower. Economic closures due to the virus have also led to the need for electricity.
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The plans included Poland’s largest coal producer, PGG, owned by other state-owned enterprises, adding publicly traded electric power manufacturers PGE, Energa and Aeneas, and fuel company PGNiG, and eventually several mines, which were supposedly taken by state-owned SRK and then eliminated. PGG was created in 2016 following a restructuring of the coal sector that also saw an injection of aid from public services.
Manys showed that the original plan was to close several mines, but not to reduce the miners’ salaries. The spokesman also denied that the entire coal industry closed until 2036. The head of the silesia-dabrowa union branch of Solidarity, Dominik Kolorz, said before the assembly that industry trade unionists were in a position to communicate about the transformation of Polish mining. Industry. Fix it still that it’ll take at least 40 years.
Very expensive
Poland’s coal mining sector recorded a net loss of more than 460 million zlotys (110 million euros, 125 million euros) from January to November 2019, with a profit of Zlotys 980 million the previous year.
Polish utilities, which, like maximum coal mines, are controlled throughout the state, prefer less expensive imported coal. The value of coal in Poland continued to rise in 2019. At the end of November, the value index of raw materials for power plants stood at 266.35 zlotys in line with the ton, 6% more than the previous year.
Despite the busy mines, Poland still imports a large amount of reasonable coal to force its power plants.
According to Eurostat’s initial knowledge, from January to November 2019, 14.9 million tonnes of coal were delivered to Poland, 16% less than a year earlier. The largest amount, 9.8 million tons, came here from Russia. In March, industry unions criticized the government for not halting imports of coal from Russia at a time when stocks were developing in national mines and blocking train tracks. Prior to the pandemic, Poland also had higher imports of less expensive coal from the Separatist Donbass region of Ukraine, Mozambique, Colombia and Australia.
Renewable energy A
“Poland is busier than any market I’ve noticed since I’ve been dealing with renewable energy,” Gary Bills, K2 Management’s regional director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, told Bloomberg Gary Bills. “There is a great interest in land and offshore wind energy.”
Among other things, the Tauron power company needs to expand solar and wind power projects at former coal sites, such as the Jaworzno thermal power plant. The corporate force forecasts between 75 and 150 megawatts of solar capacity at five sites, adding Mys-ocalice, also near Katowice, and Stalowa Wola in southeastern Poland.
In their report published in March, ClientEarth and the expert group WiseEurope, said that government money – about 1.6 billion euros a year – does not stimulate the progression of green energy. The report notes that Polish coal is artificially fed public money. Between 2013 and 2018, the country spent up to 6.8 billion euros to rescue the energy source on which Poland has historically relied.
“This money can be spent more. Coal-fired power plants get enough subsidies to finance the structure of two giant wind farms in the Baltic Sea,” said Marcin Stoczzkiewicz, Director of Central and Eastern Europe at ClientEarth. In 2019, the largest and most polluting facility in the country, the Belchatow power plant, earned 114 million euros in subsidies, or 10% of its total turnover.
It will be a melancholy and nostalgic Christmas for the other inhabitants of Bottrop, especially the last coal miners and their families. Three days before Christmas Eve, the Prosper-Haniel coal mine, Germany’s last black coal mine, is expected to close. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier won the last “black gold” coin he was raised and born.
Coal was originally stored outdoors for days, as here with the Prosper-Haniel tower in the background. Second, it was transported by exercise to the nearest port where it was loaded by barges or boats for transport to consumers; much of it has been sent abroad. German coal was in demand around the world for its quality, as long as the value was correct.
The paints in the coal mine were not only well paid, but miners were also held in high esteem. His dirty, strenuous and harmful paintings were welding the miners. Even now, everyone is called partners (“kumpel”). Their solidarity and camaraderie have been a source of professional pride, as can be seen here in this photo taken at the Prosper-Haniel mine in Bottrop.
Smaller operators have built homes for miners in the vicinity of wells. On the lawn, the staff raises birds and pigs. Sometimes they even found room for a chicken coop. Meanwhile, those houses have become very popular. Having lawns in the city is not a luxury.
After World War II, many of the so-called guest employees from southern Europe and Turkey came here to paint in the mines along with colleagues from Silesia and Mazuria, or in present-day Poland. Many of them stayed.
The 1950s and 1960s were the focus of the Ruhr’s mining industry. However, the first cracks in the economic style of mining were evident. Coal, which was first near the surface, had to be temporarily dug more and deeper, up to 1,500 meters underground. It was very expensive and German coal has gradually become less competitive in the foreign market.
For decades, the Ruhr region known for its poor air. If you lived near a coke plant, the freshly cut sheets would get dirty if you spread them on the clothesline. The symbol here shows a line of coal, chimneys and smoke in Oberhausen, not far from Bottrop. Today, few people in the region miss the consequences of the coal trade.
Even after the cessation of coal mining, it will continue to play a role in the lives of other people in the Ruhr Valley. Time and again, the land opens up and houses, roads or railways break seriously through the notoriously volatile soil.
For more than 150 years, the Ruhr region has sunk to 25 meters (82 feet). Without intervention, groundwater would increase, turning dominance into a massive lake. Therefore, the water will need to be pumped continuously. This legacy is known as an “eternal cost” for the more than five million people living in the Ruhr region.
Most of the ubiquitous mining towers have been demolished. Large spaces of the old complexes have become green. Many ancient commercial monuments, and there are many, have become amusement parks; the example is the Zollverein in Essen, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Author: Dirk Kaufmann (tr)