This Monday, February 3rd, the first Secretary for Environmental Policy of the Permanent Representation of Poland to the EU, Grzegorz Grobicki, presented the priorities of the Polish Presidency in the environmental field at the Chamber’s premises.

The presentation began with a brief introduction by the President of the Chamber, Pablo López Álvarez, who framed the event in the line of breakfast-debates of the Chamber that seeks to follow up the presidencies of the EU Council.

The councillor went on to detail the three main priorities of the Polish Presidency in environmental matters, starting with security and resilience in the face of climate change. Grobicki explained that the recent floods in different areas of Europe, including Poland and Spain, demonstrate the urgent need to put in place measures to mitigate extreme weather conditions.

During his speech, the rapporteur also mentioned as a priority the promotion of the fight against climate change through incentives and support rather than through bans or burdens. With this stance, the Polish Presidency hopes to achieve higher rates of public acceptance of measures to combat climate change.

With the same goal in mind, the Polish Presidency’s third priority is to combat misinformation about the EU’s environmental and climate policies. According to the adviser, these discrediting campaigns have no other aim than to slow down the transition to energy models that are less dependent on imports ‘from countries that do not share our values’.

The session ended with an extensive round of questions in which issues such as the 2040 climate targets, the simplification of regulations and the use of biomass as a substitute for fossil fuels, among others, were raised.