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Polish parliament to host climate security debate next month

23.07.2026 18:30
Poland's parliament will hold a debate on the country's climate security on September 7 after scientists urged lawmakers to treat climate change as a matter of national security, Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty has announced.
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Pixabay LicenseImage by Thorsten Frenzel from Pixabay

The debate follows an appeal by nearly 90 scientists associated with the Climate Coalition group of NGOs, who have called on politicians to take stronger action to protect the country from the effects of human-induced climate change.

"Climate change is not a matter of opinion but of fact," Czarzasty told reporters last week.

"The real question is what we should do about it and how to ensure the safety of citizens when climate change is already affecting us," he added.

He said extreme weather in recent weeks had underscored the need for a parliamentary discussion.

Czarzasty added that he had informed Climate and Environment Minister Paulina Hennig-Kloska about the planned debate.

Zbigniew Karaczun, a climate expert at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences and member of the Climate Coalition, said the debate is intended to show that climate change is not only an environmental issue but one that directly affects citizens' quality of life and Poland's national security.

"We want to convince politicians that climate security is an element of national security," he said, adding that civil society organisations would monitor whether lawmakers implement the recommendations presented during the debate.

The initiative follows an open letter delivered to lawmakers in late June, in which scientists warned that Poland was entering another summer marked by one of the most intense heatwaves in recent years.

They called for urgent measures to strengthen the country's resilience to climate change.

(gs)

Source: IAR, PAP