Poland bails out coal, yet wins access to EU climate funds

(Climate Change News, 21 Jul 2020) Poland has been given a green light to access EU money designed to reach the bloc’s 2050 carbon neutrality goal – without having signed up to the target.

While the Polish government announced a bailout for its ailing coal mining sector at home, prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki watered down climate conditions on EU funds during a marathon meeting in Brussels.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, EU leaders agreed on the structure of a historic €1 trillion budget to 2027 and a €750 billion recovery package from Covid-19 – 30% of which is to be spent on climate-related projects. The details still need to be thrashed out by European lawmakers and ministers.

The deal follows five days of acrimonious debate. The key battlegrounds were the proportion of grants versus loans in the recovery package and conditions on climate goals and the rule of law

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Climate Change News, 21 Jul 2020: Poland bails out coal, yet wins access to EU climate funds