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From the article:
- Not long ago Poland embodied Europe’s worst nature-destroying tendencies.
- Our parliamentary election last October changed everything. The country’s highest turnout for more than a century turfed out the ruling nationalist populist government in favour of a liberal-left coalition, led by Donald Tusk. And the new government has made a 180 degree turn by initiating highly ambitious measures to safeguard nature.
- These include protecting 20% of our most valuable forests from logging: equivalent to more than 1.4 million hectares of forest; restricting unprocessed wood exports; banning burning wood for energy in the commercial energy sector; giving citizens new rights to oversee forests, including being able to legally challenge how they are managed; and implementing a programme to restore wetlands and peatlands.
- Poland shows that what seems impossible one moment can be realistic the next: that concerted civil society pressure really works, and that if people want pro-environmental policies they must pressure their governments to implement them.
Read the full post at Climate Home News.
