Climate Obstruction in Poland: A Climate Imposter Clings to Coal

Summary

Poland is known for its history of climate skepticism and denial throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Despite its recent rapid deployment of renewable energy sources, Poland remains Europe’s most coal-dependent economy. Since the country’s accession to the EU in 2004, consecutive governments in Warsaw have been “pulling the brake” on the EU’s more ambitious climate policy initiatives and decarbonization targets. However, there are signs of changing societal attitudes, especially since 2018. Despite this trend, the country is alone among EU nations in not committing to a net-zero emissions target or a coal power phase-out date. As this chapter will describe, this situation has been created and perpetuated by a dominant coalition of governmental institutions, agencies, state-owned energy companies, and utilities that constitute a “governmental-industrial complex” (GIC). While there has been a shift in discourse and policy emanating from the GIC, it continues to promote “silver bullets” in the form of promising future technologies such as “clean” coal and unrealistic plans for new nuclear power plants. Poland’s stated commitment to a just (and gradual) energy transition is another of these “climate imposter” tactics, which the chapter will show are part of an overarching strategy of delay.