A conference was held on Wednesday at the European Parliament in Brussels. The dark side of the European Green Deal. The event organized by PiS MEP Grzegorz Tobiszowski was attended by, among others, Chairman of the Polish Mining Group and the European Association of Hard Coal and Brown Coal Euracoal Tomasz Rogala and Scientific Secretary of the Central Mining Institute (GIG) Prof. Adam Smolinski.
Grzegorz Tobiszowski recalled that initiatives such as the Green Deal, Fit for 55 and REPowerEU implement EU policies aimed at achieving climate neutrality – i.e. zero greenhouse gas emissions – by 2050. As he noted, these require rapid development of renewable sources , electrification of transport, etc. huge amounts of raw materials, the extraction and refining of which involves environmental degradation, large emissions and the use of enormous amounts of water. Therefore it is not done within the European Union and the EU is based on imports.
World coal consumption continues to grow. The European Commission prides itself on falling emissions within the Community, while global emissions are still growing, partly to meet the needs of the EU’s transformation
– said the MEP, emphasizing that “the climate is the same for the whole planet”, and moving emissions outside the EU does not solve the problem, but only deepens it.
EU dependent on China?
Tobiszowski pointed out that the European Union is 100 percent dependent on the supply of rare earth metals. As he said, 90 percent of these elements come from China. 100 percent dependence on lithium and magnesium imports is also increasing, and as much as 90 percent. cobalt and bauxite.
The MEP stressed that the huge demand for these raw materials is driving up their prices, making the transformation increasingly expensive. Since 2021, the price of lithium has increased fifteen times, and in the past three years the price of rare earths has also increased many times, for example terbium by 630 percent and neodymium by 330 percent.
Experts have no doubt that these increases are largely due to the announcement of further plans related to the European Green Deal. The European Commission predicts that by 2050, the demand for elements such as praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium will increase by 2200%. It is estimated that with such an increase in demand for raw materials and the resulting price increase, an electric car will cost an average of around 65,000 euros in 2035. In 2020, this price was approx. PLN 26,000. euros
said the MEP.
According to the Polish politician, the European Union needs to redefine its climate policy and slow down the pace of transformation, to avoid artificially inflating demand and rising prices, rebuilding its own mining sector and diversifying import directions to avoid dependence on non-democratic countries.
MEP Bogdan Rzońca took the floor in the discussion and stated that the European Union and its entire climate policy are de facto based on the pursuit of the interests of certain groups, and not on climate protection. As he said, this is confirmed by the actions of the EU authorities, but also by the inconsistency in the votes of some countries.
For example, Parliament voted to abandon internal combustion engines by 2035, but when German companies calculated that they would not sell as many cars as planned in China, Germany changed its position on the issue
he noticed.
The need for pragmatism
The former head of the Polish government, Beata Szydło, noted that:
You have to be ambitious, you have to have dreams, because that changes the world. But you also have to be pragmatic and ask yourself: why should we be ambitious and where will these dreams and ambitions lead us?
She recalled that the policy of Europe’s dependence on Russia was carried out for many years without any reflection, only the war in Ukraine changed the outlook and made us aware of the need to take other measures.
If we accepted all of Frans Timmermans’ proposals pushed through by the EU, we would condemn Europe to lack of competitiveness and deprive it of its economic assets, and we would plunge Europeans into poverty. We need a reasonable, pragmatic discussion that discusses both the benefits and the threats
– emphasized Beata Szydło.
gah/PAP
Source: wPolityce