https:\/\/www.europarl.europa.eu\/doceo\/document\/PETI-CM-691118_EN.pdf<\/a>]\n\n\n\n\nIn\nthe meantime, the Polish Minister of Climate and Environment, Micha\u0142\nKurtyka, extended the mining license until 2044, which is contrary to\nthe EU’s assumptions on counteracting the climate crisis. In\naddition, a new unit of the Tur\u00f3w power plant (496 MW) which will\nemit about 2.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, has started\nan operation. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve\nbeen talking already for a long time that the Zgorzelec region will\nnot be able to use the Just Transition Fund. It was foreseeable that\na region that plans coal extraction after 2030 and opens a new unit\nin a lignite-fired power plant will not be able to use the Fund which\naim is to support regions in decarbonization “- explains\nKatarzyna Kubiczek,\nproject coordinator<\/strong>\nfrom the EKO-UNIA Ecological Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe\nTur\u00f3w complex, together with its subsidiaries currently employs 5.3\nthousand people. This gives a maintenance of 15-20 thousand people,\nincluding the families of employees. The share of the Tur\u00f3w power\nplant in Poland’s electricity supply has droped from 4% in 2017 to\n3.17% in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\naddition, PGE wants to get rid of coal-fired power plants, including\nTur\u00f3w, in the longer term, and transfer them to the agency created\nby the government – NABE (National Energy Security Agency). PGE will\nthen drop the responsibility for being stuck in unprofitable coal\ntechnology and will probably avoid the costs of recultivating the\nland after the opencast mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
–\n\u201cUnfortunately, the decision of PGE and the government will affect\nmostly the local governments, which will lose the possibility of\ngetting large subsidies, and the inhabitants of the region. The\nenergy transition in this region is inevitable anyway. Now, however,\nit will be difficult to conduct it justly, \u201demphasizes Pawe\u0142\nPomian, member of the board<\/strong>\nof EKO-UNIA.<\/p>\n\n\n\nApproximately\n260 million Euro (PLN 1 billion) in subsidies from the Just\nTransition Fund was planned to be allocated to the Zgorzelec region.\nThe Fund would also release multi-million loans for business and\nlocal governments. There are also other, larger funds on the horizon\nthat could support employees and residents of the Zgorzelec region in\ntransition, such as reconstruction and cohesion funds or national\nfunds. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe EKO-UNIA Ecological\nAssociation<\/strong> has been working on energy and\nclimate issues since 1994. The organization is located in Wroc\u0142aw,\nin Poland. It prevents the expansion of the Tur\u00f3w opencast lignite\nmine, for the benefit of local communities, nature and the climate.\nThe organization supports civic activities undertaken by the\ninternational community at the border of Czechia, Germany and Poland.\nIt strives to make Bogatynia \u2013 lignite-\ndependent region – enter the path of energy,\neconomic and social transition. The association is a member of the\ninternational network of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and\nfor many years it has been running – together with other NGOs – the\nStop Tur\u00f3w campaign. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Zgorzelec region (where Tur\u00f3w complex is located) was most likely excluded from the support of the Just Transition Fund. All because of the policy of the Polish government and the Polish coal company PGE, which have no plan for the transformation of the Zgorzelec region and want the Tur\u00f3w power plant and mine to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[94,93],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eko-unia.org.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eko-unia.org.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eko-unia.org.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eko-unia.org.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eko-unia.org.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eko-unia.org.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17648,"href":"https:\/\/eko-unia.org.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17647\/revisions\/17648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eko-unia.org.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eko-unia.org.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eko-unia.org.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eko-unia.org.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}