Poland
Poland is the EU’s leading laggard in the clean energy transition
Poland still produces 79% of its electricity from fossil fuels, placing it top in the EU. 69% of the country’s power in 2022 was from coal. Only 21% of Polish electricity comes from renewable energy sources, among the lowest in the EU.
Despite ample renewables potential, national policies on energy transition are still under-ambitious compared to the EU and other EU countries. The country only intends to increase renewables to 32-50% by 2030, significantly below the target of 69% set in RePowerEU. Coal phase out is scheduled for 2049, far behind the timeline needed to keep global heating to 1.5C.
Being a top CO2 emitter, Poland needs to make a rapid policy turn towards clean energy, or else risk the 2030 climate targets of the EU as a whole. While Poland’s targets and policies are lagging far behind peer countries, there are signs of households and industry turning towards the affordability and energy security of renewables. In the first half of 2022, Poland was third in the EU for solar capacity installations. Heat pump sales also boomed in Poland last year, starting to expand electrification.
Last updated: May 2023
Progress towards 1.5C power sector benchmarks
Poland
2000–2040
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