The campaign concerning the costs of electricity production, initiated by Polish companies, is controversial. – This is a signal to Brussels that the Polish government does not understand the entire climate policy, which will now accelerate – said Justyna Piszczatowska, editor-in-chief of green-news.pl on TVN24. By 2050, the European Union is to achieve climate neutrality.
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It has been conducted for several days campaign of the Economic Society Polish Power Plantswhich “aims to inform the public about the structure of electricity production costs in Poland”. The campaign was initiated by the largest domestic energy producers: Tauron Wytwarzanie, Enea Wytwarzanie, Enea Połaniec, PGE GiEK and PGNiG Termika.
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One of the elements of the project is to present the impact of the European Union’s climate policy on the costs of electricity generation. As we can read on the banner accompanying the entire campaign, “the EU climate tax is as much as 60 percent of the cost of energy production”, and “EU climate policy = expensive energy, high prices”. The term climate tax covers CO2 emission allowances.
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– The price of electricity, i.e. what we pay in our electricity bills, is 20 a few percent, certainly not 60 percent and the whole campaign is very wrong – commented Justyna Piszczatowska, editor-in-chief of green-news.pl on TVN24.
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She gave bakers as an example. – Since the new year, they have been facing a radical increase in the costs of their operations and what they are doing is trying to reduce, minimize the effects of all these phenomena on the recipients of their products, and they do not spend millions of zlotys on informing them that they are not coping with the current market – noted Piszczatowska.
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Electricity prices in 2022 – account structure
Forum Energii calculated that “the average cost of CO2 is about 23% of the total electricity price paid by consumers in the G-11 tariff”. The European Commission also reacted to the duplication of information about the role of CO2 emission allowances. “The EU policy is not responsible for 60% of energy bills. The European system of greenhouse gas emission charges is responsible for approx. 20% of energy bills” – reported the European Commission.
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In Piszczatowska’s opinion, the campaign is to show that “it is not on the Polish side that the fault lies in the current price increase”. – I think that the main motive behind this is an attempt to explain to the recipients that it is not Polish politics, not the Polish government and not Polish companies that are to blame for the fact that we have not adapted to the climate and energy policy of the European Union and that it is not on the Polish side is to blame for this current price increase. But, unfortunately, this fault is on the side of the companies – said Justyna Piszczatowska.
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She also pointed out that the climate and energy policy has been known since the early 2000s. – So the question is, what has the state done to adapt to this policy, how have we reduced CO2 emissions over these several years and, unfortunately, the effects are meager. Today, energy consumers bear the costs and it will not be otherwise in the coming years, if we do not actually start radical changes and reforms in the Polish energy sector – assessed Piszczatowska.
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CO2 emission allowances
The editor-in-chief of green-news.pl explained that CO2 emission allowances could cost less. – They could only cost less if we emit less of this carbon dioxide. In the current environment, where 70 percent of the energy comes from coal, unfortunately there is no other way but to bear the costs, she pointed out.
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– The costs borne by the recipients – because they are entirely passed on to the recipients – do not disappear, but we can spend them on the energy transformation and this is not the time for such campaigns, but a constructive discussion about how to get out of all this embarrassment. And so we have to build the entire Polish energy sector from scratch, build renewable energy sources, alternatives to coal – added Piszczatowska.
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In her opinion, the ongoing campaign initiated by Polish companies “is a signal to Brussels that the Polish government does not understand the entire climate policy, which will now accelerate it”. She reminded that by 2050 we are to achieve climate neutrality in the European Union, i.e. the emission is to be net zero.
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EU ETS system
The EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) has been in operation since 2005. It sets an absolute limit or “cap” on the total amount of certain greenhouse gases that can be emitted by entities covered by the scheme each year.
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Individual countries receive their pool of allowances, the so-called auction, and sell CO2 emission allowances at auctions, and they are bought by companies that emit CO2 into the atmosphere, for example energy producers. The funds obtained from the sale of allowances by states constitute the income of their budgets. The EU directive indicates that at least 50 percent. revenues from this pool should go to climate goals.
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The revenues of the Polish budget from the sale of CO2 emission allowances in 2013-2020 amounted to approximately PLN 34.5 billion. Only in 2021, due to the significant increase in the prices of allowances, the revenues significantly exceeded PLN 20 billion.
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