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Home › Dodgy Deals ›
Dodgy Deal
ZE PAK (Zespół Elektrowni Pątnów-Adamów-Konin)Poland

Company – On record

This profile is no longer actively maintained, with the information now possibly out of date
Lead organisations:
BankTrack & Foundation Development YES Open-Pit Mines NO
Contact:

Kuba Gogolewski, Finance Campaigner and Project Coordinator, Fundacja "Rozwój TAK - Odkrywki NIE"

Last update: 2020-12-30 00:00:00
Tomisławice open-pit lignite mine, the last mine to be opened by ZE PAK in 2009 and, together with another ZE PAK lignite mine, responsible for damage to the biggest lake in the area – Lake Gopło – and the partial drying up of Poland’s sixth largest river. Photo: Renata Walczak

Company – On record

This profile is no longer actively maintained, with the information now possibly out of date
Lead organisations:
BankTrack & Foundation Development YES Open-Pit Mines NO
Contact:

Kuba Gogolewski, Finance Campaigner and Project Coordinator, Fundacja "Rozwój TAK - Odkrywki NIE"

Last update: 2020-12-30 00:00:00
Why this profile?
About
Sectors Coal Mining , Coal Electric Power Generation
Headquarters
Ownership
listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange

Trigon TFI SA, Argumentol Investment Company Ltd, Elektrim Sp zoo (Ltd) and Embud SA hold together 51.55% of ZE PAK shares (these are de facto owned by or under the effective decision-making power of Zygmunt Solorz-Żak). The Polish state-owned insurer PZU SA owns 6.06% in investment funds, while OFE pension funds together hold 26.6% (PZU OFE, Nationale-Nederlanden OFE and Aviva OFE BZW WBK each hold over 5% of the shares). Notable pension funds with holdings of over 3% are AXA OFE and Allianz Polska OFE.

Subsidiaries
PAK Górnictwo – Poland
PAK Kopalnia Węgla Brunatnego Konin SA – Poland
Website http://zepak.com.pl/en

ZE PAK is involved in the mining of lignite coal, and energy generation and distribution primarily based on lignite-fuelled power plants.

Impacts

Social and human rights impacts

ZE PAK subsidiary PAK Kopalnia Węgla Brunatnego Konin SA has plans to develop the Ościsłowo open-pit lignite mine. For construction of this mine project to go ahead, 223 hectares (ha) of fertile agricultural land in Ślesin commune, 2 ha in Skulsk commune and 100 ha in Wilczyn commune would need to be destroyed. The currently proposed variant of the project would also require the destruction of 22 ha of a 5500 year old burial mound of a pre-Slavic culture. Morover, more than 560 people would need to be resettled and 13 settlements and villages would have to be destroyed. Forty-seven water wells and 1580 ha of land would disappear, with impacts extending to lakes, rivers and to local agricultural production. In total more than 5000 people would be impacted directly or indirectly by the Ościsłowo mine – as of the end of 2011, these three communes were inhibited by 25,500 people with 1780 economic entities also registered in them.

ZE PAK is also pursuing the development of an open-pit mine at the Dęby Szlacheckie deposit in the commune of Babiak. Roughly 5000 people and 385 small and medium companies would be directly or indirectly affected if the mine advances due to impacts on water availability and dust impacting rural areas in the vicinity of the proposed mine. As of now the planning process is halted following the overwhelming rejection of the plans in a local referendum in June 2015 – over 90% of the local population voted 'no'.

The Oczkowice deposit in the region of south-west Wielkopolska is the biggest and most controversial of ZE PAK's proposed lignite mining ventures. At risk are 123 villages which would be destroyed if extraction were ever to take place, with potentially many more settlements potentially impacted by sharply falling water levels. The local terrain has some of the best soil in the country and is renowned as Poland's 'breadbasket', with companies such as Heinz sourcing their agricultural produce from the region. Indeed, businesses have created an association called Business for Ecology (Przedsiębiorczość dla Ekologii) to protect themselves from ZE PAK's planned mine.


Environmental and climate impacts

First, any additional burning of lignite by households would prevent improvements in air quality which has already been seriously impacted by domestic burning of lignite derived from ZE PAK mines.

Existing ZE PAK lignite power plants emitted 10.86 million tonnes of CO2 in 2017 and the open-pit mines belonging to the company extracted 11.67 million tonnes of lignite (19% of Poland's production) causing significant damage to human health. ZE PAK operations pose a major danger to the environment and local people, as they contaminate both air and water (rivers and lakes) with significant amounts of mercury, cadmium, copper, lead and other heavy metals.

An analysis prepared in 2013 shows that the air pollution emitted by ZE PAK annually contributes in the territory of Poland to: approximately 180 premature deaths, approximately 250 cases of chronic bronchitis in adults, approximately 1,600 cases of bronchitis in children and approximately 72,000 sick days. The external health costs of ZE PAK in 2013 were estimated at between PLN 3bn and PLN 6bn, equivalent to between 13 and 25 times the net profit of the company in that year.

Emissions into the air from only the Ościsłowo and Dęby Szlacheckie deposits – taking into account only the open-pit mines (if they are realised), and excluding the power plants in which lignite would be burned – would annually contribute in the territory of Poland to: approximately 20 premature deaths, approximately 90 cases of chronic bronchitis in adults, approximately 600 cases of bronchitis in children and approximately 9,000 sick days. A study has estimated that the health costs resulting from premature deaths will amount to a total of between PLN 1.1bn and 1.6bn for the entire period of the Ościsłowo mine’s operations and a minimum amount of PLN 2bn for the extraction in the Dęby Szlacheckie deposit.

Since lignite has been mined, the amount of water pumped out in Wielkopolska (12 billion m3) has amounted to over 18 times as much as there is in lake Śniardwy (660 million m3), or, to put it differently, to over 70% of the total volume of all the lakes in Poland (17 billion m3). The necessity to dehydrate deposits by the lignite mines in Pątnów, Tomisławice and Drzewce has caused the creation of three large depression cones, lowering the groundwater levels, which negatively affects ecosystems and farming. The plans for the Ościsłowo open-pit mine also require significant dehydration works.

Furthermore, ZE PAK's planned open-pit mines at Ościsłowo, Piaski and Dęby Szlacheckie will have a significant impact on Natura 2000 sites, which also means that they require the European Commission’s Directorate General Environment to green light the investment plans. ZE PAK's existing open-pit Tomisławice mine is the subject of the longest ongoing investigation at the Directorate General Environment due to the impact of the mine on the Natura 2000 site of Lake Gopła and for its violation of EU directives. The Commission’s final decision on this case is expected in 2018.

Financiers
Institution type
Finance type
Year
Projects
There are no active project profiles for ZE PAK (Zespół Elektrowni Pątnów-Adamów-Konin) now.

Oscislowo open-pit lignite mine

Poland
Project
On record
Coal Mining

Oscislowo open-pit lignite mine

Poland
News
BankTrack
Partners
Blog
External
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

End to coal energy by 2030

ZE Pak press release
2020-12-30 | ZE Pak
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Polish utility ZE PAK to close all its lignite plants in line with UN Climate agreement

2020-10-01 | Europe Beyond Coal
Blog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Oscislowo open-pit coal mine cancelled

2020-09-24 | BankTrack, Foundation “Development YES - Open-Pit Mines NO”
Blog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Commerzbank’s Polish subsidiary under fire for major polluter bond issue

2019-07-16 | Diana Maciaga – Association Workshop for All Beings
Blog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Commerzbank tolerates financing of the coal energy sector in Poland

2018-05-09 | Poland | Ecological Association Eko-Unia
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

New opencast mines of ZE PAK Company make no sense

2017-04-26 | Fundacja Rozwoj TAK - Odkrywki NIE
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

ZE PAK appeals decision on Oscislowo open-pit mine

2017-03-28 | The Warsaw Voice
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

ZE PAK power fails to secure environmental assessment for Oscislowo open-pit mine

2017-03-14 | PAP Biznes
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Ancient tombs discovery stalls Polish coal mine development

2017-03-08 | Climate Home
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Ościsłowo open-pit mine. Protests at the environmental authority in Poznań (Polish)

2017-01-27 | wnp.pl
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Poland's disappearing lakes fuel battle over coal mining

2016-07-10 | Reuters
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Poland wants prosecutors to investigate mine sale to ZE PAK

2016-06-04 | Reuters
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Polish billionaire joins state utilities in power support plea

2016-03-22 | Bloomberg
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

With no support system, ZE PAK is packed to go (PL)

2016-03-02 | WysokieNapiecie.pl
Blog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Bank financing of staggering Polish coal development plans continues to run deep

2016-02-25 | Kuba Gogolewski – Development YES Open-Pit Mines NO
Resources
Documents
Images
Links
2018-11-20 00:00:00

Last Gasp - The coal companies making Europe sick

NGO document
2018-11-20 00:00:00 | Climate Action Network Europe
2017-06-22 00:00:00

Polish EIA Authority’s decision to postpone the resolution of the appeal by ZE PAK

Other document
2017-06-22 00:00:00
2017-03-21 00:00:00

Annual report 2016

Annual report
2017-03-21 00:00:00 | ZE PAK
2017-04-30 00:00:00

What ZE PAK?!

Social and health impact of companies owned by ZE PAK and external costs of open-pit lignite mines planned by ZE PAK
NGO document
2017-04-30 00:00:00 | Fundacja "Rozwoj TAK - Odkrywki NIE"
2017-03-10 00:00:00

Polish EIA authority's decision to reject the EIA permit for ZEPAK's Ościsłowo mine (PL)

Other document
2017-03-10 00:00:00 | Polish EIA authority of Poznan
2015-11-02 00:00:00

Beginning of the lignite bust in Poland

Other document
2015-11-02 00:00:00 | Michal Wilczynski
2016-10-03 00:00:00

ZE PAK briefing

NGO document
2016-10-03 00:00:00 | Fundacja "Rozwoj TAK - Odkrywki NIE"
2016-06-06 00:00:00

A mine too far

NGO document
2016-06-06 00:00:00 | Foundation “Development YES - Open-Pit Mines NO”
2016-06-13 00:00:00

Poland – Banks funding the dirtiest form of coal

BankTrack publication
2016-06-13 00:00:00 | BankTrack

Map of existing and planned ZE PAK and PGE coal mines in Poland

2017-03-20

Stop Kopalni in Southern Wielkopolska website

Stop Kopalni in Southern Wielkopolska is an NGO focused on stopping the Oczkowice lignite open-pit mine.

Foundation 'Development YES - Open-pit mines NO' website

Ecological Association EKO-UNIA website

Association Eko Przyjezierze website

Association Eko Przyjezierze is the main local NGO which has been resisting open-pit mines since 2007, and is an official legal party to the Ościsłowo EIA procedure.

Greenpeace Poland website

Greenpeace Poland is particularly focused on stopping the Ościsłowo open-pit lignite mine project and is an official party in the Ościsłowo EIA procedure.

Updates

2020

2020-12-30 00:00:00 | ZE Pak stops its coal mining and coal power generation by 2030

ZE PAK SA - an energy concern, producing energy mainly from lignite so far, has decided to stop its coal mining and electricity produced from coal by 2030. See the company's press release here.

2017

2017-03-14 00:00:00 | ZE PAK power fails to secure environmental assessment for Oscislowo open-pit mine

Power and mining complex ZE PAK failed to secure an environmental assessment for the planned construction of an open-pit mine in Oscislowo and will appeal against the decision issued by the regional environmental protection head in Poznan, the company said in a market filing (source PAP Biznes).

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