On entering the EU, Poland has embraced the legal solutions in the field of environmental protection. Each company conducting business in Poland is obliged to comply with the EU standards. This is especially important for the sectors with considerable pollution factors - power and energy, chemical and some processing companies. From the perspective of these companies, two issues are important:

• the EU rule: polluter pays. Companies that discharge pollutants to the natural environment (in gaseous, liquid or solid form), must pay applicable fees to the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management;
• EU doctrine, presented e.g. in the directive 96/61/EWG, of the integrated approach - this means that the decisive factor in issuing allowances for environmentally harmful installations in companies is the application of best available practices.

Another issue is the increasing responsibility for the product, including the period after usage, which is important for the whole processing industry, as it means additional costs. This is reflected in the recycling-related legislation. The recent regulatory trend in EU is to require from the producers to take into account the whole life cycle of the product, which means also making sure that it is not harmful to the environment after disposal. This is an important tendency, which has to be accounted for even today, even though it is still not in force yet.

Another challenge that Poland has yet to face (as well as governments of other countries), is to fulfil the requirements defined in the Kyoto protocol, i.e. limitation of greenhouse gas emissions. Poland, pursuant to the strategy accepted by the Government on 04.11.2003 assumes reduction of emissions by 40% in the years 1988-2020. This is feasible (especially taking into account the achievements up to date - the emissions have been reduced by 32%). At the same time, further reduction will require coordination of climate and economic policies. Therefore, promotion of energy-saving solutions and incentives for development of renewable energy sector can be expected.

Links:

Report in English on the state of natural environment in Poland is available on the website of Inspectorate for Environmental Protection: http://www.gios.gov.pl/dokumenty/raport_eng.rar

English version of the report “The European environment - State and outlook 2005” prepared by EEA (European Environment Agency): http://reports.eea.eu.int/
state_of_environment_report_2005_1/en