The government’s climate policy actions so far, as well as the rhetoric of its members, suggest that it believes it needs to proceed slowly in order to avoid growing protests, and avoid the risk of losing out at the ballot to far-right populists who could try to scrap the Green Deal altogether, or even attempt to leave the EU. Some parties to the right of PiS demand just that: Suwerenna Polska, which was part of the PiS government, wanted to get rid of the EU ETS, while at least some parts of the extreme right Konfederacja supported leaving the EU.
Is having a slow, unambitious climate policy – or none at all – the only choices that Poland (and perhaps the rest of Europe) has? Not necessarily, but good communication is key, says researcher Hetmański of Instrat Foundation.
Public concerns regarding the EU Green Deal policies “could have been addressed through ongoing communication and dialogue,” says Hetmański. While it’s clear that the previous conservative government had no aspirations to become a green policy leader, the new one, which claims to be Brussels-oriented “allows itself to be pressured by short-term gains”. Instead of bowing to populist pressure, ministers dealing with climate policy “should do their homework and prepare a well-communicated offer for groups potentially disadvantaged by the transition,” said Hetmański, adding that the EU’s Just Transition Fund and its Platform designed for contacting and supporting coal mines should be a benchmark.
Przemysław Sadura, a sociologist who studies populism and climate denialism, also sees miscommunication as one of the main factors contributing to the “green backlash”. “So much has been said about fossil fuels and their effect on the climate that there is little to be gained by opposing the energy transition,” he said. “But in agriculture and other elements of the Green Deal there is far less awareness. It will take much more work to build a foundation for accepting such policies.”
Besides dialogue and communication, a focus on the benefits of well-designed climate policies may help overcome political divisions, suggests a 2022 report by More in Common, a non-profit attempting to decrease polarisation in politics. The findings are backed up by their surveys: When asked about climate policy in general, people showed a strong polarisation, with 78 percent of Civic Coalition (Donald Tusk’s alliance) supporters and 86 percent of The Left supporters agreeing with the need to “speed up the transition to green energy”, compared to only 48 percent of PiS voters.
But support for deploying more solar and wind in order to lower energy bills in the future was far less controversial across party lines, with as much as 90 percent support among Civic Coalition voters, and 65 percent of PiS supporters. Adam Traczyk, director of More in Common Poland, drew two main conclusions from these results. Firstly, putting people at the centre of climate policy because “reducing emissions is for the climate, but cleaner, cheaper electricity is for the people”. Secondly, he stressed the importance of communicating benefits, not burdens.
The new government is already trying to use a language of benefits. “No more talk about shutting down and transitioning away. Time has come to speak of building, investing, creating a development plan for the country,” said climate and environment vice minister Urszula Zielinska when she presented proposals for an update of Poland’s climate plan.
But the question remains whether a new language will be enough to persuade many people, given that ambitious climate policy will most likely include taxes and bans – the least popular policies, as recent polling has shown.
Source link : https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/fear-ousted-populists-could-be-enough-stall-climate-policy-poland
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Publish date : 2024-04-17 03:00:00
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