The summit was opened by special guests – Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Both politicians focused their speeches on the much needed and awaited economic benefits of green transformation. “Europe can be richer thanks to the Green Deal. For example last year, the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions fell by around two and a half per cent while the economy grew by three and a half percent,” said the European Commission chief. She referred to the Green Deal as a new strategy growth to be achieved by all sectors of the economy and all regions and groups. The Green Deal can contribute to the modernisation of the European economy and to the creation of new, well virtually all the experts present agreed. Prime Minister Petr Fiala on the Green Deal spoke of the Green Deal as a fundamental transformation of the European economy and stressed, among other things, that it should be made as good as possible to make the best use of the Green Deal not only in the interests of nature but also for the long-term prosperity of the whole continent. “The Green Deal will help us has succeeded in moving us towards more responsible living, but it has not yet succeeded in moving us towards progress in innovation and transformation of the European economy. We need to build on the agreed targets and deliver them in a way that improve our competitiveness. We must avoid any dogma, keep an eye on the world’s developments around us and update our realistic strategies accordingly. Fortunately, this is already happening,” he said Fiala continued in his opening remarks.
Ecological and economic impacts need to be balanced
The call for pragmatic, realistic implementation of the sustainability goals was followed in his speech by
Vladimír Hlavinka, owner of ORGREZ and founder of ORGREZ ECO. What did he say in his presentation during the panel with entitled “Green Deal as a homework” for example? That we should not wait for one “big bang”
- on what the state will do, but that everyone can contribute to a sustainable future: households, communities, cities, smaller or larger companies. Sustainability will be achieved through the gradual introduction of many small measures.
Vladimír Hlavinka also warned not to look at ESG as just reporting and not to “cheat” on paper measures. “Sustainable targets are an opportunity. If companies take steps to achieve them pragmatically, they can accelerate their strategy for the future. But they need to work with data, to calculate all sustainable measures, investments and their benefits into money,” he stressed, among other things Hlavinka. According to him, every company should balance the impact of sustainable measures on the environment, but also on the economy, in order to maintain its competitiveness and employment. “I am glad for today’s Summit-like meetings. They move the public debate away from questions, whether a Green Deal is needed at all, to a rational search for solutions on what measures will actually effective and at the same time economically sensible,” Hlavinka concluded his speech.
Photo: Matej Slávik, Lukáš Bíba (Economia)
The state must contribute with more friendly legislation and analyse the benefits
Who spoke next and with what message? Minister Petr Hladik announced that the approval process for
for the construction of wind power plants will be shortened to one year, whereas now it takes up to ten years. It is true that many business representatives have called for better readiness to draw subsidies and for more friendly legislation, including approval processes to speed up sustainable investments.
There has also been talk of weakened, and some say even ended, globalisation. “The global economic
war is burning, the era of globalisation is over,” believes Daniel Beneš, CEO of CEZ. He added that
globalization has been over for some time, Martin Vohánka of W.A.G. payment solutions also agreed needs to have better analytical skills and better recognize what is worth investing in,” he said on how the Czech Republic should take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Green Deal.
According to Viktor Hanzlik, a senior partner at consulting firm McKinsey & Company, an important condition is that there are enough people who understand the technologies, both in the development phase and in their implementation.
Juchelka, the head of Komerční banka, called for a stronger role for the National Development Bank, which could support the transformation of the economy if it had more resources and was willing to
to take on more risk than commercial banks. There was probably the least optimism during the debate on hydrogen, which is one of the pillars of the Green Deal, However, it is not expected to be used much in the Czech Republic due to its low efficiency in transport and industry and also because of the high costs of distribution.
Overall, however, Green Deal Summit participants view the Green Deal as unquestionable opportunity for both the continent and the Czech Republic. The European Commission recently approved the National Renewal Plan, which allows the Czech Republic to draw nearly 225 billion crowns for green transformation, especially the transformation of energy and industry. The vast majority of these funds do not have to be repaid by the Czech Republic, if it uses the grants in accordance with the rules. Let’s trust and cross our fingers that we will have those realistic strategies.