Europe’s Dirtiest Coal Plant Owner Told to Talk to Green Groups – by Marek Strzelecki, Jessica Shankleman and Ewa Krukowska (Bloomberg News – September 2020)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The owners of Europe’s dirtiest power plant were told to discuss the future of the facility with climate change activists who want it to close earlier than planned, part of a year-long legal dispute in Poland.

A judge at the district court in Lodz said Tuesday that the state-owned utility PGE SA should attempt to reach a settlement with climate activists within three months and, according to the activist group, said climate change is a crisis that requires the company’s attention.

The case highlights increasing pressure on Poland to shift away from its reliance on coal. For ClientEarth, which brought the suit, the ruling is a landmark because it puts environmental experts at the table with energy companies for the first time and sweeps away the utility’s effort to get the case thrown out at an early stage.

“In this type of a lawsuit, with such a magnitude of importance for the society, the court’s decision was an extraordinary thing,”said Boleslaw Matuszewski, a lawyer at BMG Adwokaci in Warsaw, who represented ClientEarth in the proceedings.

For the rest of this article: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/europe-s-dirtiest-coal-plant-owner-told-to-talk-to-green-groups-1.1498134