Benny Peiser: Keynote address to the Solidarność Trade Union Climate Conference, Katowice, Poland 29 May 2015
I would like to thank Solidarność for inviting me. I am honoured to address this climate conference today.
Solidarność, needless to say, is known the world over for its trailblazing role in liberating Central and Eastern Europe from communism and for its contribution to the downfall of the Soviet Union.
Today, 25 years after the liberation from Soviet rule and socialist dogma, Solidarność is challenging a new political creed, a new doctrine that is threatening millions of jobs across Europe: the EU’s unilateral climate policy.
Last September, Poland’s three largest trade unions, including Solidarność, wrote to the Prime Minister and asked him to reject the EU’s 2030 climate package, the main objective of which is to unilaterally reduce CO2 emissions in the EU by 40 percent by 2030.
The trade union leaders warned that the implementation of this unilateral policy change would mean a three-fold increase in wholesale electricity and heating prices. This in turn might lead to the loss of nearly one million jobs in Poland.
It was to no avail. The Polish government ultimately yielded to EU pressure and agreed to sign up for the targets.
But there was no consensus in Poland. One of the most remarkable elements of Poland’s recent Presidential election campaign was Andrzej Duda’s opposition to the 2030 climate package and to the idea of unilateral decarbonisation.
Mr Duda’s ultimate victory appears to have been won at least in part because he was seen to be holding the government and the outgoing President to account for agreeing to the EU’s climate package despite all the economic and security risks that it entailed.
His victory came at an auspicious time. 2015 is to be the year of a new global climate agreement and negotiations are under way ahead of the summit in Paris later this year.
If a deal is reached then the outcome will have important economic, social and industrial implications for Europe in general and for Poland in particular.
In my talk I will focus on three key issues:
1. The failure of the EU’s unilateral climate policy
2. The EU’s new climate strategy and its contradictions
3. What happens if the EU’s current climate policy fails in Paris?
Full address
