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EU warns Poland over emissions quotas
October 18, 2013, 5:12 am

The EU agreed to German and Polish demands to revise a draft on car emissions [Getty Images]

The EU agreed to German and Polish demands to revise a draft on car emissions [Getty Images]

Poland must comply with the EU’s industrial emissions target or face being taken to court and fined, the European Commission said Thursday.

The directive went into effect nearly three years ago and EU member states were given until January 2013 to adopt it into national legislation.

But Poland, which generates most of its electricity from coal and is considered one of the continent’s worst polluters, has refused to comply.

Warsaw has opposed EU energy policy for some time. It fears that the European Commission wants to cut emissions 40 per cent by 2030.

It argued that the EU was being overambitious in changing formerly agreed reduction targets and that countries dependent on coal to generate electricity would ultimately suffer.

In June, Poland sided with Germany in calling for a revised draft of a new directive on emissions from automotive vehicles.

While the current cap demands carmakers to cut carbon discharges to 130 grams a kilometre by 2015 and 95 grams for 2020, Germany wants 80 per cent of cars to meet the requirement in 2020, 90 per cent in 2022 and 95 per cent in 2023, thereby easing the pressure on European car manufacturers.

On October 14, the European Commission said it agreed to seek a revised draft.

Meanwhile, Polish Environment Minister Marcin Korolec told the media that much work needed to be done to work out a global emissions pact at the 19th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Warsaw November 11-12.

But Korolec said Poland was satisfied with the EU’s common position ahead of the conference calling on all UN member states to reach an agreement on emissions for 2015.

Source: Agencies