Polish SDS
Wanda Pazdan
20 May 2009
At this moment Poland is developing new strategy. Now we do not have NSDS. We live in theDecade of Education for Sustainable Development.There is only one way of continuous and consistent efforts to increase public awareness, i.e. through growing responsibility of each organizational unit including our government and each one of us.
Human being as an organism acts and develops in a specific environment. There is a close relationship between him and the world around him. Emotions are the way we relate to the surrounding stimuli, information. The established sustainable development strategy includes in itself measurable goals. Their implementation is largely dependent on the motivation of each Pole, as during implementation of sustainable development, interaction between people and business, social and administrative entities is a significant factor.
Secondary emotions are emotions developed on the basis of personal inclinations together with some experience gained through our life. That is why the Committee of the Regions calls for education about sustainable development starting at the day or child care center level… Culture marks out trends of thinking and, as a result, impressions of individual persons result in the so called secondary emotion, as distinguished from primary emotion, in which automatism plays the major role. Emotions related to sustainable development, motivations of individual organizational entities, as well as inhabitants depend on the way the authorities form the sustainable development strategy, the way they promote it and on the quality of engagement of culture and education.
Quotation from Stefan Kozłowski’s last publication “Zrównoważony rozwój – program na jutro” [transl. “Sustainable Development – Program for Tomorrow”] Abrys Poznań-Warszawa 2008 (publication enjoys the Honorary Patronage of Prof. Maciej Nowicki, Minister of the Environment):
“…Another world summit on issues of the environment and development should be organized in 2012. Preparations to this summit should be well under way right now. Lesław Michnowski, an outstanding theorist of eco-development [Wanda Pazdan’s note ekorozwój (eco-development ) in Polish also means zrównoważony rozwój i.e. sustainable development] , has been seeking to have this summit in Warsaw for many years.
The European sustainable development strategy is a huge challenge for the European Union countries. By joining the EU in 2004, Poland became automatically obliged to implement this strategy. It turned out that its implementation has a lot of setbacks and barriers. Some of them are, for example:
– the lack of a governmental committee on sustainable development,
– the lack of a strategy for protection and sustainable use of biodiversity,
– the lack of a current concept for area development for the whole country,
– the lack of organizational structures for management of Ecological NATURA 2000 Network,
– delays in implementation of the EU directives…
…The lack of political will for implementation of the EU directives has already resulted in serious conflicts with the European Commission. In 2007, the European Commission asked the European Court of Justice to punish Poland for faulty marking out of NATURA 2000 areas and their management. Those motions are related to the conflict about transport solutions in the area of the Rospuda Valley, as well as the extension of the cable car system to Kasprowy Wierch mountain. Those examples indicate that there are still no fully formed mechanisms for solving local conflicts in accordance with European standards in Poland. Involving politics in those conflicts results in disastrous procedural and social consequences. Instead of education in the spirit of respect to natural resources, individual political parties, fanned by their ambitions, bring about negative attitudes to the natural environment in local communities. Actions of this type by our political class constitute an enormous threat to the implementation of the European environmental policy. The result may be very severe financial penalties and even suspension of investment grants (especially for road infrastructure) awarded to Poland for the period between 2007 and 2013… If we think about radical improvement and want to implement assumptions of sustainable development, we must change our perspective on life and mental attitude. If possible, only by systematic education of the younger generations to think holistically, globally, ecologically. Current education system, however, encourages rationalistic, mechanistic approach to life. … Campaign on reasons and effects of global climate change and methods of curbing them, carried out in 2006 and 2007 and initiated by the former vice-president of the United States, a renown champion of sustainable development, Al Gor, made many societies aware about the necessity to change current way of development. In Poland, however, the campaign was not well-publicized. Stronger and stronger integration with the European Union may prove to be the most crucial chance for sustainable development of Poland, taking into consideration all its pillars, including forming its natural and cultural sphere. Decisions by the European Parliament and the European Commission, especially those in form of directives which must be implemented throughout the Community, aim at sustaining balance between natural, social and economic aspects. Both the European Treaty and its two main development strategies – Lisbon, dealing mainly with economic issues, and Gothenburg, related to sustainable development, through gradual implementation in Poland, may bring us closer to desirable results and all the more so as in each successive decade the inflow of EU funds will play a deciding role in our development. Control of how they are spent, among other things, adherence to the sustainable development criterion, will constitute one of the basic methods of achieving goals of eco-development. In a modern, civilized state no other way should be even considered…” end of quotation
SDS UE
