|
Energia - Środowisko
Dodatek promocyjno-reklamowy do "RZECZPOSPOLITEJ".
13 września 2005 r.
Threats for the paper industry
Statement of Janusz Turski - Association of the Polish Papermakers
The share of the cellulose-papermaking industry in the allocation of carbon dioxide emission allowances is fairly small and constitutes only around 1% of the national allowance pool. At present, as a result of a significant CO2 allowance reduction, the papermaking industry is facing a serious threat to its further development. This stems from the energy intensiveness of the industry as well as from high costs of environmental exploitation.
After the NAP was verified and corrected by the Ministry of Environment in May this year, the reduction of allowances allocated to the papermaking sector turned out to be significantly higher in comparison to other sectors, and amounted to over 24% of the initial allocation among installatons.
We should remember that the NAP for CO2 emissions, drawn up initially in 2004, envisaged an increase of emission needs in the paper industry by around 22.7% in relation to the base emission level set against the 1999-2002 data. This stemmed from the forecasts for the per capita growth of paper consumption in Poland. The emerging threat was, therefore, the necessity to reduce production in plants with the highest production potential.
The leading paper producers feel they have been punished by the drastic reduction of allowances. This is because before 2001 they made huge investments in emissions reduction and aligned their plants with environmental requirements instead of compensating their costs for example by applying the early action "premium" tool. What is more, some paper producers hoped to gain benefits from allowance trading, in accordance with the assumptions of directive 2003/87/EC. In long-term strategies of most of the leading paper producers, which manage big sources of CO2 emissions, the possibility of allowance trading was supposed to stimulate generation of assets necessary for dynamic development of pro-ecological investments. According to the initial assumptions, emissions trading was supposed to promote the creation of an instrument for optimization of environment exploitation costs. Reducing the possibility to apply this instrument in the Polish papermaking industry may in many cases result in a delay of investments in the short-term perspective and thus affect the fulfilment of environmental protection objectives.
In order minimize its negative impact on the environment it is necessary for the cellulose-papermaking industry to implement BATs. Up till now only the strongest entities in the papermaking sector, which used their own resources, have made investment efforts on a big scale. The emissions trading instrument gave hope for a significant improvement of competitiveness on the national and the EU market. Implementation of the policy geared towards environmental preservation has become the main challenge for managers in cellulose-papermaking industry.
www.spp.pl
|
