Title photo: the Turów Lignite mine, Poland;
Figure 1
Figure 2
Coal consumption in Europe has fallen dramatically since 1990 with most countries either coal-free or planning to become so by 2033. There are, however, some notable exceptions. Unsurprisingly, they are countries for whom coal plays a significant part in their electricity generation.
Poland is one of the few countries worldwide whose reliance on coal for electricity generation has remained above 60% for the past 40 years. But the transition to renewables is a road fraught with controversy. On the one hand, Poland has 25 coal mines and 80,000 miners. The transition from coal to renewables has to take into account the socio-economic impact. Miners must be offered options for reintegration into the labour market so they don’t end up on the streets. On the other, the uncomfortable truth is that coal is killing the world, its high levels of carbon emissions pushing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels towards a catastrophic 500ppm.
Until Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Poland imported much of its coal from Russia. Now 20% of its coal comes from as far afield as Colombia, Kazakhstan and Indonesia; the other 80% (48 million tonnes) it produces from its own mines - that's 97% of all the coal mined in the EU. A close look at Fig 2 tells you that Poland's reliance of coal is falling but not fast enough to reach the UN 2030 targets. In 2023, renewables produced just 23% of its electricity. The shadow of coal hangs over the country which does not have a national climate law or a strategy to become climate-neutral. Poland accounts for 10.7 % of the EU's net GHG emissions, and achieved a net emissions reduction of just 9.3 % in the years 2005 to 2023 – significantly lower than the EU average of 30.5 % over the same period.
In a 2023 Eurobarometer survey, 28% of Poles, compared with a 46 % EU average, identified climate change as one of the four most serious problems facing the world. However, Poland's government knows its climate policy must fall into line with EU policy. In the coming months, updates of several key strategic documents are expected. The submission of a fully updated Polish Energy Policy is planned for early 2025. Moreover, the climate ministry and the industry ministry are also working on a new programme, 'Poland's energy transition', and a 'heating decarbonisation strategy' is under way, as the sector is a priority area for transition from fossil fuels to low-emission sources. Despite this belated progress, Poland remains a major consumer of coal and its transition to renewables will likely be somewhat less than rapid.
TITLE PHOTO: By Anna Uciechowska - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,