Time November 2/November 9, 2020THE GREAT RESET
Police in Katowice,
one of the most
polluted cities
in Europe, use
drone technology
to test smoke
coming out of
chimneys in 2018pressure has only grown. In Septem-
ber, the country achieved a break-
through when it committed to close
its mines by 2049, and suggested a
willingness to consider the bigger
promise to green its economy —with
the right conditions. “We are not say-
ing it’s impossible, but we are saying
let’s make sure we all exactly know
how it’s going to happen,” says Kur-
tyka, the Climate Minister. “We can-
not say in the office in Brussels or in
Warsaw: ‘That will be the objective,’
and move on.”
in Poland, discussions have begun
from the bottom up. Rather than face-
less bureaucrats sending down or-
ders, plans for the energy transition
from fossil fuels are being developed
with the support and guidance of local
communities— the people most likely
to be affected by the change.
In the west-central region of
Wielko polska, for example, the E.U.
estimates that 6,000 jobs in coal are
threatened by the move away from
fossil fuels. Maciej Sytek heads the
regional authority charged with re-
structuring the local economy. His
mandate is huge. He arranges regu-
lar meetings that incorporate labor
unions, local government authori-
ties and NGOs. The subcommit-
tees are devoted not just to topics
like the economic or energy impli-
cations of the transition but also to
factors like “social affairs” and “so-
cial infrastructure”—a recognition
of the cultural challenges inherent in
ending a local industry.
Locals here are largely sold on
the initiative already. They opposed
plans to open new coal-mining terri-
tory when the current mines are de-
pleted, and a local mine owner has
even opted to train his employees to
work in the solar industry. (The larg-
est Polish solar farm is scheduled to
open soon in Wielko polska.) Mean-
while, Sytek is working to attract
a range of new industries. E.U. fund-
ing is critical to making it happen.
“Sometimes you have to just hon-
estly tell yourself that you need to
change and start building something
new,” he says. But “it’s crucial that the
people who lose their jobs are given a new identity, are given hope.”
One model for progress can be found across the border in Ger-
many, where as of 2018 some 32,000 people were directly employed
in the coal-mining industry. The German government launched a
commission to study how to phase out the energy source in 2018.
In coal- mining regions across the country, local leaders met with the
commission and crafted regional priorities to be collated into one
national plan that passed the German Parliament in July. “We were
able to agree on big transformative policy in a rather peaceful way,”
says the German Environment Ministry’s Sach.
The corona virus pandemic hasn’t changed the country’s road map,
but it has changed the timeline. “We need to undertake investments,
which otherwise would be staggered in the next 10 to 15 years, within
the next three to five years,” says Sach.
Change is not equally welcome everywhere, however. Silesia, the
Polish region where Katowice is located, poses perhaps the most
difficult challenge for transition in the entire E.U. The coal sector
employs some 73,000 workers there, and many in the region remain
hesitant to give up the industry that for decades formed the back-
bone of their society. Today, locals sadly recall the restructuring of
the mines in the 1990s after the fall of the communist regime. That