Agnieszka Tomaszewska

We are speeding up...

We are approaching the end of the FCO's financial year, which means speeding up the work on some of the projects. Every day brings new challenges and new experience. Our activities require preparation and time, and there is always too little of the latter...
 
Last week, the Public Opinion Research Centre CBOS, and the British Embassy, agreed the final version of the questionnaire to poll the Polish public about climate change perception. As it usually happens with this type of projects, choosing the right wording for the questions and all the consultations that involved, required a lot of commitment on the part of the Energy and Climate Team, the Embassy’s Press and Communications Section as well as CBOS, which had won the project delivery competition. It was important to us that in the poll, the climate issues should be treated in a comprehensive way and the views shared by the respondents should be as close to the reality as possible.  The CBOS pollsters are already in the field with the questionnaires and we can’t wait to see the survey results!  
 
A few days ago, I had the pleasure to meet Mr. Tom Corcut, economic advisor and the Head of the Carbon Emissions Trading Team at the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change. Tom came to Poland for the launch of a UKIE [Polish Office of the Committee for European Integration] project, Impact Assessment for Poland of the EU  ETS Directive. The project is implemented with the support of demosEuropa and the British Embassy and co-funded from the UK FCO programme supporting low carbon economy - Strategic Programme Fund Low Carbon High Growth  (SPF LCHG). Tom Corcut gave a presentation on Impact Assessment for ETS Directive in the UK and answered questions from Polish experts interested in using the British methodology in preparing the Impact Assessment for Poland. It was the first of a series of consultation meetings planned under the project, so I believe I will soon be able to write more about the progress of the works.
 
Our list of tasks for the nearest future includes a semi-annual report on projects implementation, work on another set of project proposals which we will present to SPF LCHG next week.  On top of that, there will be some new events to coordinate in the coming weeks. There is no time for boredom in the Climate and Energy Team!
 

Posted at 15:13 13 March 2009 by Agnieszka Tomaszewska  |  Comments[0]

Representative of DECC at a CCS conference in Warsaw

On 10 February, the British Embassy in Warsaw, had the pleasure to hold an international conference "CCS and other clean coal technologies – Poland's prospective trademark?" In my opinion, it was one of the biggest events devoted to the issue of carbon capture and storage in Poland.

Over 200 people, including some distinguished guests from Poland and abroad, participated in the conference. The panel consisted of representatives of governments, the European Commission, non-governmental organisations and businesses. The debate was very lively and engaged the advocates and the opponents of CCS. A lot of people emphasised the need for further research and construction of demonstration plants where the efficacy and safety of this technology could be tested. The sceptics stressed that CCS technology did not really reduce CO2 emissions but only transferred it from the atmosphere under the ground.

One of the special guests was Polish deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy, Mr. Waldemar Pawlak. He confirmed that Poland wanted to follow the countries applying clean coal technologies. That is important since approximately 95% of electricity generated in Poland comes from coal. Waldemar Pawlak also confirmed that Polish government should make all the efforts necessary to have two of the CCS demonstration plants located in Poland.

At the conference, I had a chance to meet Ms. Rachel Crisp, the Deputy Director of the Cleaner Fossil Fuels Unit within the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, whom we invited to Poland for that occasion. In her presentation, Rachel focused on presenting the institutional and legislative framework preceding the practical implementation of CCS technology and she announced the publication of the British government CCS strategy planned for summer 2009.

The event was enhanced with the presentation of a video promoting CCS technology, produced by the CCS Education Initiative. The film is also available on You Tube.

The main organiser of the conference was demosEuropa – Centre for European Strategy, the initiators of the series of debates under the common title "Can green make money? Prospects for competitiveness-friendly climate policy". A full report of the conference (in Polish) and the list of speakers together with their PowerPoint presentations are available on their website. It was another successful event organised jointly by the Embassy's Climate and Energy Team and demosEuropa.

Posted at 16:05 02 March 2009 by Agnieszka Tomaszewska  |  Comments[0]

London calling…

After a few days of fighting a nasty flu that seemed to have taken control of Warsaw, on 27 January, I went to London. And I noticed that winter was following in my footsteps to the UK. Believe me, I had not planned that ;)

During my visit in London I met a representative of the Strategic Programme Fund Low Carbon High Growth (SPF LCHG) team, which coordinates the allocation of funds and activities related to implementation of projects, including the Polish ones. As a result of our talks, a representative of SPF LCHG had been invited to visit Warsaw in May. It will be a perfect opportunity to meet organisations implementing the projects and to see how they operate on a day-to-day basis.

During the rest of my stay I attended a programme management training course which, I suppose, significantly influenced my views on how to coordinate several projects seeking a common goal. In case of SPF projects, this goal is to support investment in low carbon economy. All project proposals submitted to our Embassy's Climate and Energy Team should satisfy this requirement so that we can effectively cooperate with our Polish partners and share with them the UK experience in tackling climate change.

Posted at 16:30 10 February 2009 by Agnieszka Tomaszewska  |  Comments[2]

... and things keep happening at a breathtaking pace.

Together with the Press & Communications section, we have been involved in consultations with opinion polling centres interested in carrying out research on climate change perception among Polish people. It is one of the most interesting social projects we have the pleasure to support. I'm very glad to be able to be a part of it.
 
Over the last few weeks, a number of new ideas for cooperation with Polish partners have reached our Climate and Energy Team. Most of them involve presentation of UK experience in fighting climate change, including the use of new technology, improving energy efficiency or increasing the share of renewable energy in the energy generation and distribution systems. Some of those projects would be worth implementing before the end of the financial year (that is before the end of March). Others will have to wait until April. Some examples of projects implemented with our support in 2008 can be found on our website.
 

Posted at 12:33 26 January 2009 by Agnieszka Tomaszewska  |  Comments[1]

2008 went by so fast...

Just before Christmas, the Projects Committee held a meeting, chaired by Michael Halpin, the Head of the British Embassy Climate and Energy Team. We selected the best five proposals for low carbon economy projects submitted to the Embassy by Polish organisations.

Two of them involve carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. This is an important issue for the UK. David Miliband , UK Foreign Secretary, mentioned it recently in his blog. It has also been attracting more and more interest in Poland, especially in the context of the Climate-Energy Package.
  
The other projects refer to issues such as improving energy efficiency and increasing the share of renewable energy in the energy mix. The institutions which submitted the projects include non-governmental organisations, think-tanks and research institutes.  Following the meeting, we sent the projects to the Project Committee of the FCO Strategic Programme Fund Low Carbon High Growth - SPF LCHG . In mid-January we shall find out which proposals will pass on to the next stage of the competition.

I would really like our projects to be approved by the SPF LCHG as they are both interesting and innovative. Their implementation will promote investment in modern technologies and job creation. New jobs may appear in those sectors of the economy which will develop as a result of climate protection activities. This has already happened in some Western European countries.
 
The year 2008 was a fascinating time in the history of the still quite young British Embassy Climate and Energy Team. Between April and December we were involved in a number of visits, meetings and events, preceding the COP14 climate conference in Poznań  and the EU summit in Brussels. I can't remember ever before meeting, in such a short time, so many people devoted to climate protection. I know that we will go on working together in the coming year and that we will all face some more breakthroughs in the near future. I will certainly write about them in my blog.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year!

Posted at 11:51 08 January 2009 by Agnieszka Tomaszewska  |  Comments[0]

Launch of a CCS project

My name is Agnieszka Tomaszewska and I am a projects coordinator at the Climate and Energy Team at the British Embassy in Warsaw. The Team was created in April 2008, and this is my first entry in this blog. I am glad that I will be able to tell you what we do and in particular, to share  information about climate and energy projects implemented in Poland with the support of the British Embassy.
 
I recently came back from Poznań. Since 1st December, the COP 14 meeting has been in progress there.  Experts and politicians from almost all countries of the world have been reflecting on the future of the global climate policy. Under the COP14 logo, apart from negotiations carried out by state delegations, a number of exhibitions have been organised as well as information stands and other accompanying events.

The reason for my visit in Poznań, and actually not Poznań itself but the village of Będlewo, 30 km from Poznań, was the launch of a CSS (carbon capture and storage) project. The project is implemented by the Polish Confederation of Private Employers (PKPP Lewiatan)  (a Polish equivalent of CBI) in cooperation with the Polish Platform for Clean Coal Technology. It is supported by the British Embassy in the form of a grant from the Strategic Programme Fund Low Carbon High Growth (SPF LCHG) , a UK FCO programme promoting low carbon economy.

Even though CCS was not the main topic of the conference in Będlewo, which bore the title “Clean coal and nuclear technologies for combating climate change”, this issue did raise a lot of interest. It is generally known that Polish government wants two of the CCS demonstration plants to be located in Poland. However, there is no consensus in the EU yet, as to the source of funding for this project. It seems that an agreement on this may be reached during the Climate and Energy Package discussions later this week. 

The representatives of the Polish government and the energy sector, attending the conference, admitted that CCS technologies may be successfully applied in Poland and prof. Jerzy Buzek – a Member of the European Parliament and the conference organiser – emphasised that Poland should become a European leader in clean coal technologies. However, CCS installations are very expensive and there is still a number of questions to be answered before the construction works can begin. The project of PKPP Lewiatan provides a good opportunity to launch a national debate over those issues. 

 
On my way back from the conference I looked through a few project applications submitted to the Embassy for a new low carbon projects competition. For a few weeks now I have been sending comments back to the applicant organisations. The consultation process takes some time but I would really like the applications to be very well prepared: they must fulfill the SPF LCHG criteria, must be clear and transparent. Only the best applications will be sent to London in mid December, where the SPF LCHG team will assess them and decide whether funds can be awarded. There are still so many fascinating projects that could be implemented in Poland. I look forward to seeing more!

Posted at 17:18 05 January 2009 by Agnieszka Tomaszewska  |  Comments[0]