Dispatch from Poland | April 2025

*** Get a bird's-eye view of Italy’s climate-friendly transition in the CLEW Guide – Poland's new govt yet to deliver on energy transition promises***

Stories to watch in the weeks ahead

• Wind farms as hot election campaign topic – The Polish parliament has sent a draft bill on onshore wind farm development rules for further deliberations to the parliament’s (Sejm) energy, climate and state assets committee. The deal would leave the final decision on construction to local communities and entitle them to up to ten percent of the energy the local installations produce. Turbines would have to be installed at a distance of at least 500 metres from urban areas and 1,500 metres from so-called Natura 2000 EU nature reserve areas. The bill was forwarded to the committee despite opposition from the main right-wing parties: former government party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS) and Konfederacja (Confederation). Committee negotiations are set to take place under heavy pressure from business representatives arguing for further liberalisation and opposition politicians looking for a possibility to weaponise the debate over wind farms in the presidential elections. The first round of voting is set for 18th May, the second one – if needed – is scheduled for 1 June.
• Presidential vote – The latest poll sees Rafał Trzaskowski (Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition) in the lead with around 30 percent of support. Karol Nawrocki is the runner-up with around 25 percent of support. He is supported by Jarosław Kaczyński’s Law and Justice (PiS) party but is running as an independent candidate. The election will go into a second round between the two leading candidates if none receives an absolute majority in May. Poland has a parliamentary system where the president has a say in the approval of regulations agreed in the Sejm, like the onshore wind farm liberalisation act. The president could forward the act to the Constitutional Court and by doing so prolong the process indefinitely.
• Late strategy – Like many other EU states, Poland is long past the deadline to submit the final updated National Energy and Climate Plan to the European Commission, although the government has said it would do so by June 2025. The European Commission is considering filing a complaint in the European Court of Justice if plans are further delayed, as Brussels has already asked Poland among other members states to submit their plan. The main assumption of Poland's draft plan is reaching 50 percent of electricity generation from renewable sources by 2030. It is supported by green NGOs and political liberals, but contested by coal miners’ unions and conservative parties.
• Polish “economic nationalism” approach to influence energy and climate policy – Amid US tariff announcements, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk announced a “time of economic nationalism” and said the country would “brutally guard” its own interests. Tusk pledged to support a domestic share in every investment, mentioning for example the country’s planned nuclear power plant. “In this increasingly ruthless competition of egotists on the world market, on the war fronts, Poland will not be a naïve partner, and Polish companies will not be at a disadvantage in competition with international giants,” he said. Big investments in energy infrastructure would be accompanied by deregulation initiatives undertaken by a special team under the auspices of Rafał Brzoska, CEO of delivery company InPost who has been branded as Poland’s Elon Musk.

The latest from Poland – last month in recap

• Polish EU presidency struggling to lead European efforts to phase out Russian fossil fuels – One of the priorities of the Polish EU Council presidency lasting until the end of June is to push for a detailed roadmap to end imports of Russian fossil fuels in line with the REPowerEU plan, which has a 2027 deadline. However, Poland failed with its initiative to impose an embargo on Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports. It also rejects any speculations about the revival of the Nord Stream 2 Russian gas pipeline to Germany. The European Commission is set to present its proposal to end Russian fossil fuel dependence on 6 May. Other Polish presidency priorities include bolstering critical infrastructure resilience and strengthening energy price affordability to increase the competitiveness of the European economy. The Polish government is also aiming to reform the electricity market to strengthen nuclear energy vis-à-vis renewables.
• Activists hit nuclear project - Anti-nuclear activists have contested the environmental authority’s (GDOŚ) decision to give the green light for the planned Polish nuclear power plant in Lubiatowo-Kopalino, in the Pomerania region on the Baltic Sea. It is now up to an administrative court in Warsaw to decide if the environmental decision is in line with the law. Construction of Poland’s first nuclear power plant is set to begin in 2028, with the aim to generate electricity by 2036.
• Recovery funding reaches Poland – Poland received a major tranche from the EU Recovery Fund (6.3 billion euros), set up in 2021 to help member states deal with the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic. A large part of this money is to be invested in electricity networks. Polska Grupa Energetyczna, the biggest state-owned energy utility in Poland, is to invest around 2.8 billion euros into distribution networks. A challenge for the energy transition in Poland could be the fact that the government is redirecting part of the Recovery Fund money to the Security and Resilience Fund worth 6.95 billion euros, created to support security investment to contain the threat from Russia. The victim of this redirection is for example the green fund for Polish cities.

Wojciech’s picks – highlights from upcoming events and top reads

• Reform Institute analysis on further energy transition in Poland – really good read about what to do next in the Polish transition strategy. 
• What kind of competitiveness is needed in Europe and Poland – nice one from Forum Energii which argues for further decarbonisation to increase the competitiveness in Poland and Europe in general.