Why are so many Polish towns polluted?

By A.C. | WARSAW

WORLD LEADERS gathered in Katowice, south-western Poland, this week for the UN’s COP24 climate conference. With decarbonisation on the agenda, Katowice, in the heart of coal-mining country, was a surprising choice of location. The event’s sponsors include Europe’s largest coking coal company, and guests were greeted by a coal-miners’ band. The city of 300,000 inhabitants is among the most polluted in Europe. And in Poland it is far from alone. The country has 36 of Europe’s 50 most-polluted towns (in terms of PM2.5, or fine dust), according to the World Health Organisation. Earlier this year, the EU Court of Justice ruled that Poland “persistently exceeded” limits to regulate the amount of pollutants in the air.

Coal is largely to blame. Poland gets around 80% of its electricity from the stuff, be it domestically produced or imported from Russia. On December 4th, when Poland celebrated Miners’ Day, President Andrzej Duda said he “will not allow anyone to murder Poland’s mining”. He had stated at the opening of COP24 that Poland’s use of coal “does not clash with climate protection”. The government, which is under pressure from the EU to cut carbon emissions, is aiming to get 60% of its energy from coal in 2030, supplemented by energy from wind farms and nuclear power.

Coal burnt in people’s homes is the main pollutant in Polish towns. Around half of households burn solid fuels, mainly hard coal or firewood, for heating, according to the country’s statistical office. Non-industrial sources (mainly households, in other words) accounted for almost half of Polish emissions of PM2.5 in 2016 (a further 20% came from industry, 9% from energy production and 7% from transport) and 45% of emissions of PM10, which refers to larger particles. In places such as Slovakia and Hungary, natural gas plays a much more important role in domestic heating. Moreover, the quality of fuel burnt in Poland is not always the highest. To save money, some people burn waste coal and slurry. Others burn rubbish, which is illegal.

The problem is partly economic. Based on 2016 data, 12% of Poles are estimated to be in “energy poverty”—in other words they have difficulty meeting their energy needs. In villages, where people live in detached houses and often lack access to district heating, this figure can be as high as 20%. This year, the government launched a “Stop Smog” scheme to help poorer Poles modernise their houses’ insulation, thereby reducing energy consumption. With a budget of over 100 billion złoty (€23bn), this will offer households a subsidy of up to 90% of costs. “We realise that we are making up for many years of civilisational delays,” said Mateusz Morawiecki, the prime minister. Long-awaited regulations will ban the poorest-quality coal from households in 2020, as some cities have already done. Yet for now, Poles are in for another smoggy winter.