Agnieszka Tomaszewska

About the British Climate Act during a conference in Warsaw

A few very buy weeks have past since my last entry.

On 13 January, demosEuropa organised an international conference gathering almost 200 participants from Poland, Germany, Norway and other countries interested in applying CCS technology to fight climate change. It was one of a series of events planned under the demosEuropa project funded from the FCO Strategic Programme Fund Low Carbon High Growth [you can read about the details of that programme in my earlier blog entries]. Apart from a discussion of experts, a key element of the conference was the presentation of a report analysing political and legal solutions implemented in various countries which are considering a construction of CCS installations and including certain recommendations for Poland. A full report from the conference together with both, Polish and English versions of the document “How to efficiently implement CCS in Poland?” can be found at this site.

CCS, however, is not all that we have been working on recently. On 27 and 28 January we had a visit in Poland of experts from the organisation Friends of the Earth, Mary Taylor, and from the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, James Hughes, who, during their meetings with Polish partners, talked about the history of the UK Climate Change Act. In particular, on 27 January, our UK visitors took part in a dinner organised by the Climate Coalition , addressed to non-governmental organisations, members of parliament, local governments and other social partners who may be interested in having a similar climate act adopted  in Poland.
 
On the following day, 28 January, out UK guests gave presentations during an international conference “The Newest Dimensions of Climate Policy. Three ideas that make us free”. The conference was organised by Procesy Inwestycyjne, whose cooperating partners were, apart from us, the Embassy of Sweden and the Embassy of the United States in Warsaw.  The speeches were followed by a lively discussion and dozens of questions from the floor, including issues such as the functioning of the UK Climate Act and the changes it has brought about. Professor Krzysztof Żmijewski of the Public Board of the National Programme for Reduction of Emissions, operating at the office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Waldemar Pawlak, and at the same time the chief organiser of the conference, talked about what was needed to have a similar act prepared in Poland. One of the people listening closely to the debate, was Dr Andrzej Kraszewski, one of the conference moderators, who has been the new Minister of Environment since 1 February 2010. You can find more information about this interesting event at the website of Procesy Inwestycyjne. I encourage you to have a look.

Posted at 13:54 01 March 2010 by Agnieszka Tomaszewska  |  Comments[0]

Warsaw, David Miliband on climate change and Copenhagen

It is still 80 days to the climate conference in Copenhagen. This is an important time to take the last decisions before the global agreement opening the post-Kyoto period is signed.
The United Kingdom and the EU member states are trying to make the obligations that will be undertaken in Copenhagen ambitious. That is why the UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, has recently visited a few European capitals in order to talk about climate and energy issues. On 8 September he visited Poland. The visit was an important event in the life of our Embassy.
One of the points of his agenda was a visit to the “Siekierki” heat and power station in Warsaw, where he was accompanied by the Polish and Swedish foreign ministers, Radosław Sikorski and Carl Bildt. The “Siekierki” heat and power station is owned by Vattenfall Poland. It is the largest CHP facility in Poland and the second largest in Europe. In the years 2007-2008 the Swedish investor modernised the plant, which made it possible to significantly reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. At the moment, in its plants, Vattenfall Poland is implementing one of the biggest environmental programmes in Poland. Their most immediate investment plans include construction of a CCS installation.
Our Climate and Energy Team cooperates with Vattenfall Poland and Vattenfall Heat Poland on a project implemented by the Polish Confederation of Private Employers Lewiatan. The project concerns low emission solutions for business (“Promoting low carbon energy mix solutions for business sectors”) and is financed from the UK Foreign Office fund promoting low carbon economy while sustaining high economic growth (“Strategic Programme Fund Low Carbon High Growth”). The aims of the project include raising awareness of CCS in Poland and promoting the use of biomass for energy purposes.

Posted at 15:14 25 September 2009 by Agnieszka Tomaszewska  |  Comments[0]