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Polish opposition pledges to scrap coal by 2040

The main Polish opposition group vowed Saturday to eliminate coal-generated power by 2040 as it launched a general election campaign against the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party.

“We’re not an island, nor are we a separate planet. The world’s climate breakdown applies to us just as it does others. We have to take action,” Civic Coalition leader Grzegorz Schetyna told a party convention in Warsaw.

“By 2030 we will eliminate (the use of) coal in heating houses and apartments… and by 2040 in the energy sector,” he said.

Coal is the main source of energy for Poland, which relies on its own deposits as well as imports and has some of the highest carbon emissions in the European Union.

The right-wing PiS, in power since 2015, said last year that it would still use coal to meet 60 percent of the country’s electricity needs in 2030, compared with around 80 percent today.

The European Environmental Agency (EEA) blames air pollution — caused in large part by the burning of coal — for an estimated 50,000 premature deaths per year in the country of 38 million people.
Source: AFP

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