In spring, the EU passed a law effectively banning the sale of new cars powered by fossil fuels from 2035, despite opposition from Warsaw. Now Poland’s challenges to the EU combustion engine phaseout will appeal before the bloc’s top court, Climate Minister Anna Moskwa said.
“The solution of banning combustion cars in 2035 is harmful to all European economies … I believe that if today we are making a decision for 2035, then today it is necessary to look at its consequences for the following years”, she said. “There is no analysis of the social and economic impact, which is scandalous”, Moskwa added. “Anyway, we are going to the Court of Justice in the near future with this decision”.
The legislation, opposed by Warsaw, is part of a larger set of bills designed to cut the EU’s emissions by 55 percent this decade.
Politico suggests that Poland could appeal against other parts of this so-called Fit for 55 package as well: “We are going to the Court of Justice with this and many other Fit For 55 documents”. Poland was part of a coalition of countries led by Germany that sought to block the 2035 clean car sales mandate from entering into law earlier this year.
But while Berlin was focused on securing a commitment from the Commission to draft a legal workaround for e-fuels, a synthetic alternative to petrol and diesel, Warsaw wanted to avoid an outright ban on sales of polluting vehicles. In the end, the Commission agreed to Germany’s demands and the law passed, with only Poland voting against it.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Poland has deferred a plan to cut its reliance on coal by changing the status of its energy policy update to a consultation ahead of elections later this year, following pressure from mining unions.
The climate ministry published in April a document it began working on after Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, causing major disruption in energy markets. It called for a doubling of renewable capacity to 50 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 and a further increase to 88 GW by 2040, but the climate ministry website said it will now feed into an all-industry strategy update.
In 2021, the government said the country will continue mining coal, which generates some 70% of Poland’s power, until 2049.
Michal Hetmanski, head of Instrat, a Warsaw-based independent think tank, said the change of status ruled out the plan’s being adopted before elections due in October or November, adding it “yet again questions the government mandate to plan an energy transition at all“. “It is peculiar that the government wants to consult the strategy soon after proposing it due to the pressure from powerful coal mining unions“, Hetmanski told Reuters.