We need a klimatrevolution in Poland

It is not so uncontroversial as it may sound to introduce the idea of “solidarity” in climate and environmental policy. The concept has a special place in the Polish consciousness and the Polish history; it was a broad union and popular movement named Solidarity, which was the most important player that toppled the communist dictatorship in Poland in the 1980s.

When the local governors from a number of Polish towns now launches the appeal ”Solidarity for the climate” – in which the signatories commit themselves to work for up to the year 2050 a transition completely to renewable energy sources in their communities – there is thus a clear intention with the choice of words.

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In a hotel a few kilometers from the megastadion where COP24-the meeting is being held to sign a group of mayors and members of the city council the declaration. Even the former Polish presidents Lech Walesa and Aleksander Kwasniewski supports the declaration, even if they themselves are not present.

– We need a revolution in Poland just as the Solidarity carried out in his time. But really, it is not something radical, it's just what the science dictates. We must leave the carbon that makes our children sick, " says one of the signatories, Mateusz Klinowski. He is a former mayor of Wadowice, a small town best known for Karol Wojtyla, who would later become pope John Paul II, was born there.

directed indirectly against the rubble of the old solidarity movement, which for several decades has left their democratic and libertarian roots and become one of the mainstays of the ruling högernationalistiska the Law and justice party (PiS).

Friday went Solidarity out with a statement against “climate alarmism”, along with the u.s. lobbyorganisationen Heartland Institute. Where is it called, among other things – in the battle against the established facts – that ”there is no scientific consensus on the causes and consequences of climate change”.

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the Heartland Institute has not only been known as 'climate change deniers', but also that in the 1990s, have been lobbying for the tobacco industry's argument that smoking is not harmful.

– They are simply idiots, " says Mateusz Klinowski about today's Solidarity.

He lost the election against a PiS candidate, and the reason was according to him, in large part to the city's inhabitants did not enjoy an active climate policy. The phasing out of coal burning, measures, sopförbränning and other things would cost money.

" People get all the time hear on state controlled tv that the coal is so fine and that we will be independent of both the EU and Russia if we burn coal. But it is a scam. On the contrary, the import of Poland of large quantities of coal from Russia, and is, therefore, strong dependence on Moscow.

according to Mateusz Klinowski, a reason for Solidarity embraces klimatförnekarna. That the organisation representing the heavy industry, including coal and steel, is another.

– The Polish government shares this view, they pretend simply that climate change does not exist. It is thus on the same side of the climate policy as saudi Arabia, the USA and Russia.

In this situation, says Mateusz Klinowski, must pressure come from below, from local and regional powers. Hope lies in small and medium-sized cities, which, moreover, is the worst miljöbovarna. While the big cities have large district heating plants with some form of purification, is heated most of the houses in the small towns that Wadowice with coal-fired stoves.

" I was the first mayor of the city in this part of Poland, which demanded an end to kolanvändingen. But I got through it, " says Mateusz Klinowski.

But also larger towns and cities makes its to get away from the dirty coal; Kraków, which is Poland's second largest city, has taken the radical step to ban all coal burning from and with next summer.

the Intensive work before the ministers ' arrival to Katowice

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