Even if the Change Is Challenging and Costly, It Is the Right Way To Go, Ask Jan Czudek
POSITIV 3/2020 43
In our industrial businesses, we understand
the European trends in reducing emission
of greenhouse gases. The transformation
of our enterprise to a low-carbon operation
will be challenging and costly, yet we see it
as the right way to secure a more resistant,
technologically advanced and sustainable
low-carbon economy. To make a long
story short, we understand that we must
protect our Mother Earth.
We have joined forces to inspire one
another, and to make our projects come
true. We are united in our responsibility to
our current employees as many families
in our region have been related to our
enterprise for a few generations. We want
our companies to keep offering jobs to
their children, grandchildren, and great-
grandchildren, too.
There is much dispute in the EU about
support for coal-mining regions. Do you
consider it a benefi t or a disadvantage
that your company operates in the
Moravian-Silesian Region, which ranks
among those European coal-mining
regions?
The Moravian-Silesian Region is and has
been dedicated to industry which has
been connected to coal mining for over
200 years. Great energy-consuming
enterprises such as steel production are
intensively linked to coal processing. The
end of coal extraction in OKD is a threat
to companies like ours who will have to
search for other suppliers of about half
of our current demand of coking coal,
currently supplied by OKD, and parallelly
continue developing technologies
making us less dependent on coal until
we can abandon coal-powered energies
completely.
If we understand the declaration of
European representation on the European
Green Deal well, they do not mean to
leave any of the regions or individuals
behind. There is a new European fund with
a self-explanatory name, Just Transition,
to support the coal-mining regions and
help them transform into low-carbon
economies. We actively communicate
with the representation of the government
of the Moravian-Silesian Region to
drive their support of transformation of
traditional industries upon motivating
conditions. These conditions, however,
depend on the settings of so-called Public
Assistance. We initiated the new setting
of these conditions so that they could
facilitate the transformation projects.
Generally speaking, we demand the
same or at least similar conditions on the
global market so that we would not carry
the burden of extra costs resulting from
climate protection, and the EU would act
fairly, without imposing the carbon tax on
non-ecological foreign production.
What we highly appreciate is the care and
kind approach of the government of the
Moravian-Silesian Region and the governor,
Mr Vondrák, who sees our initiative as
the Green Deal of the Moravian-Silesian
Region. As Mr Vondrák himself said, the
will of traditional industries to transform,
modernise, and decrease their carbon
trace is the best news for our region,
because this region has always been and
will remain infl uenced by these industries.
Thank you for the interview.
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