Anna Moskwa made the declaration at an energy conference in Warsaw on Wednesday, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Bringing together policy makers and officials, including Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, experts and energy executives, the event focused on Polish-Ukrainian energy cooperation and energy security in central Europe.
The Polish climate and environment minister told the audience that “Poland wants to share its energy experience with Ukraine.”
Moskwa added that her country “has enjoyed success in developing photovoltaics,” among other achievements.
She stated that “Poland boasts more than 1.2 million prosumers” and “is a leader in Europe,” in part thanks to a government programme called My Electricity.
“And that’s something that we are ready to share with Ukraine,” she declared.
Nuclear power, energy transition, clean air
Moskwa pledged that Poland would also share its “nuclear power experience” with Ukraine.
She said there were plans “to create in Poland, in cooperation with the United States, an educational hub in the field of nuclear energy, catering to the needs of the entire Europe, and especially Central and Eastern Europe.”
Moskwa told the conference: “The educational challenge is one of the main development challenges facing nuclear energy. We are ready to meet this challenge.”
She announced: “We’ll also be exchanging experiences with Ukraine when it comes to energy transition and clean air.”
Moskwa also said that Europe was experiencing a “renewal of interest in nuclear energy,” being seen in “a growing number” of countries, including Poland, France and the Czech Republic.
She added that the European Union “is yet to recognise” nuclear power "as similar to renewables," which she said “has already been done by the United States,” the IAR news agency reported.
Poland, Ukraine to push for Russia’s suspension from UN atomic agency
Moskwa declared that “Poland and Ukraine will push for the suspension of Russia as a member of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as soon as possible” over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
She noted that Poland formally asked the IAEA to suspend Russia following Moscow's full-scale assault on Ukraine last year.
Moskwa told the conference that suspending Russia's IAEA membership would mean that the country "would still have to carry out its duties towards the agency, but would be stripped of rights and privileges and its reputation would also suffer.”
Seeking compensation for destruction of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure
Moskwa said that “the second challenge facing Poland and Ukraine” would be “to properly catalogue losses and jointly demand compensation from Russia for every life lost and every energy infrastructure facility destroyed."
“We are taking up this challenge, and we won’t abandon any of the joint projects started with Ukraine before the war,” she said.
Moskwa added she believed that “all these projects will develop even more dynamically after the war.”
She declared that Poland and Ukraine would focus on designing new power and gas links and seek to diversify their sources of energy.
Russia committing ‘nuclear terrorism’: Ukrainian ambassador
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Zvarych, who also attended the conference, voiced hope that Polish-Ukrainian energy cooperation would “accelerate even further” after the war.
Zvarych also called on the international community to “take firmer steps” in response to Russia’s “massive rocket strikes” on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, "the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant" in southeastern Ukraine, and "the undermining of the security" of his country’s nuclear facilities.
“This is nuclear terrorism and we maintain that the whole world is in danger,” Zvarych said.
Polish Radio was a media partner of Wednesday’s conference, which was organised by the state-run Polish Nuclear Stations company (PEJ).
Wednesday was day 385 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, gov.pl