The silent killer – smog in Poland
The winter is approaching Poland, and together with gradually descending temperatures comes the recurring problem – smog. WHO
Report (2016) clearly proved Polish infirmity – out of 50 most polluted
cities in the European Union, 33 are located in Poland. Last winter,
Poland has been announced “the China of Europe”
in terms of pollution, when one day Warsaw had the most toxic air in
the entire world. Particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) standards were
exceeded by more than 3000% (Wantuch, 2017). According
to the European Environment Agency Report (2016), Poland’s poor air
quality causes 48,000 premature deaths every year and shortens each
person’s life by 9 months. Silesian cities inhabitants inhale the amount
of toxins comparable to smoking 7 cigarettes a day - the smog is silently killing Polish population.
The
problem of smog in Poland has been arising for many years and
successive governments have marginalised it. The main reason for this
lies in Polish economy dependency on coal (Szypulski, 2017). Low-stack
emission (defined as the emission of harmful dust and gases from
transport, households, and industry at the height of no more than 40 m)
is the culprit of smog in this region (Kaczmarczyk, 2015). The Polish
roads become more congested and the industry lacks proper coal
regulations. However, the real source of the problem appears in the
heating season when households start to burn coal, trash, and other
cheap materials in old-generation stoves, which are inefficient and emit
large amounts of pollutants into the atmosphere.
Smog is an example of negative externality
in Poland due to an excessive and unwise use of natural resources and
due to failing in putting the correct price on the use of these
resources. Smog exists as a result of the market failure,
which is caused by lack of property rights - nobody owns a clean air
but everyone can use it because it is a public good (non-excludable and
non-rivalrous). However, when air gets very polluted, it becomes a
common-pool resource (still non-excludable but rival). In this situation
behavior of Polish citizens can be described using the economic term Tragedy of Commons. People acting in their own best interest collectively result in smog and exhaust the level of clean air available to others.
There
are different sources of pollutants in Poland, therefore various
economic methods should be used in order to solve the problem of smog.
Transport
31% of cars on Polish roads are more than 20 years old and fail to meet basic Euro emissions standards (GIOŚ, 2017). Command and control regulation
(CAC), namely the appropriate legislation clearly stating what level of
emission is admissible would help to combat smog. The car owners would
be obliged to have a regular service of their vehicle and would receive a
sticker certifying the met ecological standards. Pigovian Tax
for the entrance to the CBD could also help to reduce pollution and
traffic. The higher tax for cars with poor exhaust technology would be
an economic incentive for them to improve. Double dividend (a positive side effect) would improve the environment and offset distortionary taxes.
Industry
80%
of Polish electricity comes from coal-burning (Kaliski et al. 2012).
Industries often lack proper regulation on the quality standards of
coal, which could be solved by proper legislation (CAC). Cap-and-trade
solution would be pivotal to manage the problem of excessive emission.
In this case, a fixed amount of pollution would be set and firms would
trade their pollution permits on the market. In this manner, a value
would be created on the good, which previously had no price. Permits
would need to be well-defined and scarce and could be auctioned off or
allocated to the firms for free (grandfathering).
Households
There
is lack of regulation on the quality of coal sold to individuals and
lack of education, which leads to extensive burning of coal and trash to
heat houses. Command and control
regulation including replacement of old stoves and thermomodernization
(insulation of buildings) is the best possible solution. The proper
legislation should be followed by well-functioning control activities
and severe fines for non-compliance with environmental standards. Coal
sold to individuals should be also appropriately taxed to enhance
searching for more sustainable solutions and improving defective,
inefficient stoves.
The
most significant benefit of taking above-mentioned actions is the
protection of our and future generation from toxic air. Elimination of
smog will significantly contribute to the improvement of health. Command and control
regulation of transport seems to be feasible (e.g.in Berlin) and would
significantly reduce air pollution in the crowded CBD. Society, however,
tends to be unfavourable in case of taxes. They would also make firms
and services in the centre lose clients. The most important way of
combating smog in Poland would require the industry to become less
dependent on coal. The tradable pollution permits
system is said to be the most cost-effective way of environmental
protection (Hanley et al. 2013) and would allow efficiently controlling
the level of coal emissions, however, there is a problem of initial
allocation mechanism of permits.
The
problem of smog in Poland accumulates during winter because of trash
and coal burning in households. This problem is particularly difficult
to be solved because of lack of appropriate control instruments.
Moreover, some households cannot afford improvement of technology. Coal
tax could be an incentive to switch to renewables but undesirably could
enhance people to burn trash and cheaper material.
Currently,
the Polish government is working on creating proper legislation.
Moreover, it is financing replacement of old technology in poor, rural
areas. Authorities of Cracow are considering imposing an environmental
tax on the car access to the city centre. A few times due to smog public transport in Warsaw and Cracow was free of charge.
Currently, Poland is far behind other European countries in terms of
air quality, therefore the situation needs to be solved and proper
actions have to be taken in order to protect the whole European
population from toxic, spreading air.
About the author:
Iga Józefiak is an undergraduate student of Geography and Sustainable Development at the University of St Andrews. She is particularly concerned about the issues of climate change, especially due to the fact that her home country, Poland, highly depends on coal in energy sector.
Links to the original story:
http://warszawa.naszemiasto.pl/artykul/skad-bierze-sie-warszawski-smog-dlaczego-problem-pojawil,3976184,artgal,t,id,tm.html (In Polish, I’m happy to translate it)
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