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Sinful coal a problem for the religious Pole

Coal and the Catholic Church are two of the most powerful institutions in Poland. Now Pope Francis has put them into conflict with each other.

The pontiff’s new environmental message that coal “must be progressively and without delay replaced” is causing deep worry in the country, which boasts Europe’s largest coal sector and one of its most religious populations.

“In the Vatican we hear voices that this is an ‘anti-Polish’ encyclical,” wrote Poland’s Rzeczpospolita newspaper.

According to a leaked draft text of the encyclical published by Italy’s L’Espresso magazine earlier this week, Pope Francis urges citizens and leaders, especially in the developed world, to change the way they produce and consume, and to shift away from fossil fuels towards renewables to drastically cut emissions.

“We know that the technology based on very polluting fossil fuels — especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser extent, gas — must be progressively and without delay replaced,” the document states. “Waiting for a full development of renewable energies that should have already started, it is justified to pursue the lesser evil or to turn to temporary solutions. However the international community has not reached suitable deals on the responsibilities of those who should bear the higher costs of the energy transition.”

The Pope’s message is giving fits to U.S. conservatives who otherwise agree with the Catholic Church’s stance on social issues like gay marriage and abortion. Republicans are in a particular fix. Catholic convert and presidential candidate Jeb Bush waded into the issue in New Hampshire, saying, “I think religion ought to be about making us better as people, less about things [that] end up getting into the political realm.”

Poles are more careful about crossing the Pope, but the issue is hugely sensitive. The industry employs about 100,000 people and generates almost 90 percent of its electricity.

Andrzej Duda, the newly elected president, said during his campaign that “coal is our national fuel on which Poland’s energy security depends,” denouncing efforts by the government of Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz to reform the sector, which is drowning in red ink.

But Duda is also a very pious Catholic. He made a point of dropping into some of Poland’s most popular pilgrimage points during the recent campaign, gave a lot of time to Catholic media and said he was against in vitro fertilization (also vociferously opposed by the Church hierarchy) “because I am a believer.”

Poland is overwhelmingly Catholic, with just over 90 percent of Poles nominally belonging to the Church. Although attendance at Sunday mass has been drifting lower in recent years, pronouncements from local bishops and from the Vatican are taken seriously.

That means that the Pope’s words in the encyclical, which is due to be officially released Thursday, carry weight in Poland’s debate about the role of coal and the country’s stance on emissions and global warming.

source: http://www.politico.eu