(Bloomberg) -- French President Emmanuel Macron says Poland won’t have access to a 100 billion-euro pot of climate transition funds unless it signs up to the European Union’s emissions goals in June.
Poland was the only holdout as EU leaders pledged to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050 at a summit in Brussels Friday. While 26 nations gave an unqualified endorsement to the goal, Poland, in an unusual fudge, endorsed the objective without committing to meeting it. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was given another six months to decide whether to join the EU effort.
“One member country doesn’t have the necessary visibility in its national strategy,” Macron said at a press conference. “If in the end they don’t sign up, Poland will be excluding itself from mechanisms like the solidarity mechanism.”
The EU’s historic decision sets in motion a radical overhaul of the economy but despite adding funding to help poorer states like Poland make the transition it also laid bare the divisions in the continent.
The late-night negotiations with Morawiecki highlight the difficulties ahead for the EU as it works out how to pay for an overhaul that will transform everything from energy production to transport, agriculture and the design of cities.
“Poland will reach climate neutrality at its own pace,” Morawiecki said. “We will adjust the pace to the condition of our economy, to what we can afford and to what the Just Transition Fund will be and how much Poland will get from this fund.”
The leaders’ statement gives the commission the mandate to start designing laws in an unprecedented environmental clean-up and has already begun to spur action by industrial giants. ArcelorMittal announced on Friday that it set a target to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030 to contribute to the Green Deal.
“This is the outcome investors were looking for,” said Stephanie Pfeifer, chief executive of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change. “The policy certainty it provides will help unlock the additional flows of capital required to deliver a climate neutral future.”
Polish Break
Leaders agreed to return to the issue in June and before then the EU will also be negotiating its next seven-year budget. That may offer the rest of the bloc a chance to turn up the pressure on Morawiecki with Poland already the biggest beneficiary of EU funds and Warsaw angling for additional help from the transition fund to clean up its power industry.
“The devil’s in the details and we want to explain the details, so that the new fund will serve a real, fair transformation of Poland’s economy, the power sector, and serve Polish households,” Morawiecki told reporters Friday. “This could be a huge injection of very good, extra funds.”
Why ‘Carbon Neutral’ Is the New Climate Change Mantra: QuickTake
The net-zero emissions target, which EU leaders have been debating for almost a year, constitutes the cornerstone of the commission’s far-reaching strategy to stake its economic future on an environmental clean-up.
With U.S. President Donald Trump set to pull the world’s biggest economy out of the Paris Climate Accord and China, the world’s biggest polluter, still building more coal power plants than the rest of the world combined, Europe is looking to seize the initiative in the global campaign to rein in the effects of climate change -- and betting that it will bring a dividend in terms of jobs and economic growth.
Under the commission’s proposals, the transition to climate neutrality would start next year and involve stricter emission limits for industries from cars to chemicals, revamped energy taxes, new rules on subsidies for companies, greener farming, and possibly an environmental import tax. Everything from finance to the design of cities would need to become more sustainable.
“I am pleased with this important agreement yesterday about climate change,” European Council President Charles Michel said on Friday. “It was very important for the EU to decide and to have a common goal -- climate neutrality by 2050 -- with a clear vision about the investment we have to develop.”
(An earlier version corrected the date of the ArcelorMittal announcement)
--With assistance from Robert Jameson, Arne Delfs, Viktoria Dendrinou, Nikos Chrysoloras, Ian Wishart, Jonathan Stearns, John Follain and Maciej Onoszko.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at ekrukowska@bloomberg.net;Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Ben Sills
For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
(彭博社)--法國總統馬克龍説,除非波蘭在6月份簽署歐盟的排放目標,否則它將無法獲得1000億歐元的氣候變化資金。
歐盟領導人週五在布魯塞爾舉行的一次峯會上承諾,到2050年消除淨碳排放,波蘭是唯一的阻力。儘管26個國家無條件地支持了這一目標,但波蘭卻以一種不尋常的捏造手法贊同了這一目標,但卻沒有承諾實現這一目標。波蘭總理馬特烏斯·莫拉維耶茨基(MateuszMorawiecki)被給予六個月的時間來決定是否加入歐盟。
馬克龍在新聞發佈會上説:“一個成員國在其國家戰略中沒有必要的可見度。”“如果最終他們不簽署協議,波蘭將把自己排除在像團結機制這樣的機制之外。”
歐盟的歷史性決定啟動了對經濟的徹底改革,但儘管增加了資金以幫助波蘭等較貧窮的國家實現轉型,但它也暴露了歐洲大陸的分歧。
與莫拉維茨基的深夜談判突顯出歐盟面臨的困難,因為歐盟正在研究如何為一項改革買單,這項改革將改變從能源生產到交通、農業和城市設計的一切。
“波蘭將以自己的速度實現氣候中立,”Morawiecki説。“我們將根據我們的經濟狀況、我們能夠負擔得起的、公正的過渡基金將是什麼以及波蘭將從這個基金得到多少錢來調整我們的步伐。”
各國領導人的聲明授權歐盟委員會在前所未有的環境清理過程中開始制定法律,並已開始鼓勵工業巨頭採取行動。安賽樂米塔爾上週五宣佈,它設定了到2030年減排30%的目標,為綠色協議做出貢獻。
“這是投資者所期待的結果,”氣候變化機構投資者集團(IPC)首席執行官斯蒂芬妮·費弗(StephaniePfefer)表示。“它提供的政策確定性將有助於釋放必要的額外資本流動,以實現氣候中立的未來。”
波蘭斷裂
各國領導人同意在6月份重新討論這一問題,在此之前,歐盟也將就其下一個七年預算進行談判。這可能讓歐盟其他成員國有機會加大對莫拉維茨基的壓力,波蘭已經是歐盟基金的最大受益國,華沙希望從過渡基金獲得更多幫助,以清理其電力行業。
Morawiecki星期五對記者説:“細節是魔鬼,我們想要解釋細節,這樣新的基金將為波蘭經濟、電力部門和波蘭家庭的真正、公平的轉變服務。”“這可能是大量注入非常好的額外資金。”
為什麼“碳中和”是新氣候變化的口頭禪:QuickTake
歐盟領導人已經爭論了近一年的淨零排放目標,這是歐盟委員會將其經濟前景押注於環境清潔的長遠戰略的基石。
鑑於美國總統唐納德·特朗普(Donald Trump)將把全球最大經濟體從巴黎氣候協議(Paris ClimateAgreement)中拉出來,而世界上最大的污染者中國仍在建設比世界其他國家總和更多的燃煤發電廠,歐洲希望在全球行動中抓住主動權,遏制氣候變化的影響--並押注這將帶來就業和經濟增長方面的紅利。
根據歐盟委員會的提議,向氣候中立的過渡將從明年開始,包括對從汽車到化學品的工業實行更嚴格的排放限制,修改能源税,對公司補貼的新規定,更綠色的農業,以及可能的環境進口税。從金融到城市設計,一切都需要變得更加可持續。
“我對昨天就氣候變化達成的重要協議感到高興,”歐洲理事會主席查爾斯·米歇爾(CharlesMichel)週五表示。“對於歐盟來説,非常重要的是決定並有一個共同的目標--到2050年實現氣候中立--對我們必須發展的投資有一個清晰的願景。”
(較早版本更正了ArcelorMittal公告的日期)
-在Robert Jameson、Arne Delfs、Viktoria Dendrinou、Nikos Crisoloras、Ian Wishart、Jonathan Stearns、John Follain和Maciej Onoszko的協助下。
聯繫這篇報道的記者:Ewa Krukowska(布魯塞爾)Ewa Krukowska@bloomberg.net;Helene Fouquet(巴黎):hfuquet 1@bloomberg.net
聯繫負責此報道的編輯:Reed Landberg at Landberg@bloomberg.net,Richard Bravo,Ben Sills
欲瞭解更多此類文章,請訪問我們的網站:bloomberg.com。
2019年彭博社L.P.