Energy transition in Poland, and the resulting national policies, strategies and regulations have been driven by the EU climate policy and by Poland’s commitments following from its Member State status. While different measures have been introduced to promote the energy transition, including dedicated  support schemes targeting different stakeholders, no commitment has been made  concerning the date of achieving climate neutrality by the country.

The traditional  dependence on coal  to secure energy needs (77% in electricity generation mix in 2022), poses a particularly difficult challenge, both in economic and social terms, because of the proportionately higher costs of decarbonisation: investment needed to convert the energy system (over EUR 195 billion, i.e. over 3% of GDP needed until 2030) and to alleviate the negative effects on coal dependent regions and workers , and to support them to reorient their economies and careers for the low-carbon future. 

To secure energy sovereignty, while phasing out the predominantly domestic coal,  the country has taken systematic efforts to diversify suppliers of natural gas which is to serve as transition fuel, while the country invests in the construction of its first nuclear power plant and increases RES capacity.

Over the last decade the share of fossil fuels has slowly declined. Energy consumption has been decoupled from GDP, and the primary and final energy intensity dropped by over 20%, accompanied by an increase in plant efficiency. That was matched by a falling trend in GHG emissions. With the production of hard coal dropping by one third and that of lignite by 15%, the share of coal and lignite mining jobs in the energy sector shrunk to 33% from 48%.

The jobs affected by the energy transition are concentrated in a few regions, which are noted for a high share of coal-based employment and/or the strong reliance of their revenues on coal-based operations. The regional authorities together with local stakeholders developed Territorial Just Transition Plans which are to help reorient regional economies towards low carbon future. Parallelly to those efforts, miners’ trade unions were able to negotiate  a social contract covering State owned hard coal mines, followed by a social contract covering State owned lignite mines and coal and lignite fired power plants. Otherwise, the government has been avoiding  a substantive discussion with the social partners on the challenges involved in energy transition and ways to address them, and the country has been suffering  from the lack of political leadership in its transition to climate neutral economy.

This research report is s a part of the project “REJEnerAXion - Energy for a just and green recovery deal: the role of the industrial relations in the energy sector for a resilient Europe”, a European Union co-funded research project (101052341/SOCPL-2021-IND-REL).