The Greater Poland’s Road to Climate Neutrality – Powering Past Coal Alliance

2024-02-26

Greater Poland officially joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance.

“The Greater Poland’s road to climate neutrality” is the second conference of the Life After Coal PL project organised by the Marshal Office of the Greater Poland Voivodship. The project, in whch we are a partner, envisages the energy transformation of Eastern Greater Poland.

During the conference “The Greater Poland’s Road to Climate Neutrality”, the Marshal of the Greater Poland Voivodship signed a document on Greater Poland’s official accession to the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA). This is a coalition of more than 180 countries, local governments and companies working to accelerate the transition away from unlimited coal power. Greater Poland’s energy transition efforts set an example for other regions still dependent on the coal industry, as underlined by the signatories of the declaration – Anna Clunes, Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Poland, and Catherine Godin, Ambassador of Canada to Poland – as well as Paulina Hennig-Kloska, Minister of Climate and Environment, who attended the meeting.

Greater Poland is the first region in poland to join the PPCA.

This is a special day for Wielkopolska. Today we are signing our entry into the elite club of countries and regions that have declared their commitment to fighting climate change. – said Marek Woźniak, Marshal of Greater Poland.

The first part of the conference was dedicated to invited guests. The Minister of Climate and Environment, Paulina Hennig-Kloska, spoke about the most important upcoming developments in national climate policy.

The changes associated with the energy transition must be our success, not our problem. I believe that this transition in Poland can be used to attract new technologies to our country, with the cooperation of the state, business and universities to develop new solutions that we do not yet know. – she said.

Anna Clunes, Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Catherine Godin, Ambassador of Canada to Poland, then spoke about the coalition of governments and local authorities working on energy transition. They also mentioned the activities of the British and Canadian governments in this field.

The European LIFE programme was presented by Paloma Aba Garrote, Director of the European Climate Executive Agency, and Hans Rhein, Head of LIFE Energy + LIFE Climate.

Axel Vogel – Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Climate Protection of the State of Brandenburg – spoke about the efforts of the State of Brandenburg to implement climate requirements. Robert Gajda, Vice President of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, presented the support of climate friendly measures within the framework of the NFOŚiGW funds.

In the second part of the conference, Prof. Paweł Churski, the Dean of the Faculty of Social and Economic Geography and Spatial Management at the Adam Mickiewicz University, took the floor. He introduced the participants to the topic of development challenges of coal mining regions in the conditions of energy transition. This was an introduction to the expert debate on these issues.

Dr Jacek Wilecki, head of the Life After Coal PL project, also spoke about the main challenges.

A delegation from PPNT, together with board member Prof. UAM Dr. Dominika Narożna, attended the event. Many thanks to our partner and main consortium member for the invitation and organisation of this event.