It is one of the fiercest environmental disputes on European soil in decades: Warsaw and the Prague have spent the last year sparring over the future of a lignite coal mine located in Turów, southwest Poland, at the frontier with the Czech Republic and Germany. The Czech government argues the recently expanded mine is affecting local groundwater levels and polluting its environment, while the PiS-led cabinet claims the coal mine is essential to its energy security.

Our Polish correspondent,  Bartek Sieniawski, reports live in Bogatynia over the tussle, while Natalie Sauer and Boris Schneider talk to Milan Starec, a Czech resident campaigning for the closure of the mine. 

The Eurasian Climate Brief is a new podcast dedicated to climate news in the region stretching from Eastern Europe and Russia down to the Caucasus and Central Asia. 

This episode is hosted by:

Natalie Sauer, a French British environmental journalist and MA student in Russian and Post-Soviet Politics at the School of Eastern European and Slavonic Studies, University College London. A former reporter for Climate Home News, her words have also appeared in international media such as Le Monde Diplomatique, Politico Europe, Open Democracy, Euractiv and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Boris Schneider, a political economy and energy expert at n-ost, a Berlin-based network for cross-border reporting. Boris heads initiatives to boost climate journalism in Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe. 

Bartek Sieniawski, a journalism student at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. He is currently carrying out an internship at Euractiv Poland.
 
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