Environmental risks
Level of risk
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low
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medium
-
high
Change in the level of risk compared to 2016
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decrease
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unchanged
-
increase
-
Risks concerning environmental protection regulations
- high
- increase
The legal regulations applicable to the environment and the usage of natural resources are subject to constant change and the trend over the most recent years has been toward making the binding standards more stringent. Consequently, the Group may be unable to comply with and act in compliance with provisions of law as amended in the future or such amendments may have an adverse effect on the Group’s business activity. Additionally, changes to the environmental protection law may force the Group to adapt to new requirements (e.g. adjusting the technologies used by the Group to curtail atmospheric emissions or changes to how waste is managed or water and sewage management), inclusive of obtaining new permits, or changes to the conditions of the current permits held by the Group. Such an obligation may require the Group to incur specific additional capital expenditures and may, by the same token, affect the its financial standing by increasing the costs of its activity. The Group strives to limit risk by constantly overseeing environmental protection legal requirements and making the necessary investments to meet all environmental requirements. The Group’s priorities are to act with awareness and responsibly based on the highest environmental standards and to be consistent in undertaking environmental tasks. Actions aimed at minimizing these risks include: constant oversight of environmental protection legal requirements and execution of necessary investment projects to meet all environmental requirements.
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Threats arising from the occurrence of mining damage on the surface
- high
- unchanged
The risk is connected with that fact that the Group, because of coal reserves being located under forest and intensely urbanized areas, will have to incur high costs to carry out land rehabilitation in advance and repair mining damage. According to the Geological and Mining Law, the Group is obligated to repair mining damage in facilities and structures and it may be obligated to reinstate land to its state from before the mining activity commenced. Any and all changes to the law that would make these requirements more stringent may lead to higher costs of reclamation and repairing damages.
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Risk associated with adaptation of the group’s activity to the eu climate policy
- high
- unchanged
One of the priorities of the European Union is to prevent climate change, among others through limiting the consumption of natural energy resources, introducing modern and efficient energy generation technologies, limiting carbon dioxide emissions, reducing energy consumption through increasing the importance of renewable energy generation. In order to achieve these objectives, the European Union has introduced a package under the name of "3x20% by 2020”.
In addition, the European Commission is currently working on what is referred to as the “winter package” constituting a series of legislative solutions striving to attain the objectives specified above within the EU of its current energy and climate policy for 2030. The active climate policy pursued by the European Union adversely affects the steel industry due to the elevated operating expenses. As a consequence, the poor standing of the metallurgical industry sector may lead to the Group having diminished revenues. Activities related to risk minimization include: continuous analysis and evaluation of the situation in the area of changes to the EU Climate Policy and resulting changes in national legislation, execution of projects by the Group intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by making maximum use of the methane captured in the coal production process for the purposes of electricity, heat and cool air production.