In southern Poland you will find a picturesque landscape of rolling wheat fields, pointed church spires, and… red and white smokestacks. Ironically the colors of the country’s flag, these smokestacks serve as reminders that in Śląsk, coal mining is not only a livelihood, but a culture.

In the media, Poland is often portrayed as the West Virginia of Europe, with significant criticism towards the Polish government for their enduring reliance on coal. Rightfully so, because coal combustion is not only a major source of climate-change-inducing carbon dioxide emissions but also releases various nitrous oxides and particulate matter that has been proven to have serious adverse effects on human health.  

But while this dispute usually takes center-stage, I would like to call attention to 3 other factors that should be noted when it comes to Poland’s energy transition.

Coal is culture

Coal mining is physically demanding work, coming with a number of safety concerns and health risks for those who toil underground which is rooted deep in the identity of the people of Śląsk – as exemplified by the stories, songs, and folklore I would hear about as a child. To this day, my grandpa celebrates the Barbórka, a holiday that honors St. Barbara: the saint of anyone who, simply put, faces the danger of sudden and violent death in their work. The miners – mostly men – don their traditional uniforms and shakos whose feather colors symbolize their profession in the industry, and there is usually a parade and a feast.

However, Barborka celebrations may soon be only a story I pass onto my own grandchildren. A major mine in the town of Konin is set to shut down in 2024, and others will likely soon follow suit. The energy transition is coming: but whether it comes with dignity is the question. And to make it a just transition, we need less coal-shaming and more focus on practical solutions, including policy that supports jobs and income, workforce reskilling, and more broadly programs that target the opportunity the transition provides for these same people affected.

Coal is warmth

We often think of coal combustion as the coal that is burned to generate electricity. However, the primary cause of the smog that chokes my family and many others, especially in the winter, is not coal-fired power or district heating plants – which contain a series of filters, scrubbers and/or electrostatic precipitators (ESP) to remove harmful pollutants, such as fly ash and SO₂ – but the use of solid fuel furnaces in individual family homes. In fact, nearly half of Polish households heat their homes with solid fuels, and across the EU, Polish homes account for 87% of all household coal consumption as of 2019. As a result, Poland is home to 36 of the 50 most polluted cities in the EU.

These days, Poland doesn’t mine much coal: production has been on a steady decline since the 1990s as high-quality coal is becoming increasingly economically unviable to extract, with imported coal accounting for approximately 20% of consumption. The reliance on imported coal is particularly relevant for households, as the coal that is produced in Polish mines is often only suitable for power plants’ consumption. Instead, households rely on products such as “ekogroszek”; while this ironically translates to “eco-pea”, it is essentially a low-sulfur, high-quality coal of a certain pellet size. 

Because much of this was sourced from Russia, the invasion of Ukraine triggered the government to look for alternate supply – and caused a squeeze on mostly-rural households dependent on solid fuels for warmth, just as inflation diminished their disposable incomes. With the availability of low-cost loans and government subsidies, many turned to… heat pumps.

Coal is out

Poland leads Europe on heat pump installations per capita, installing a record 203,000 heat pumps in 2022. The market has been stimulated through carrots – such as the government’s ten-year Clean Air Programme that started in 2018, providing subsidies to homeowners looking to replace heating systems with cleaner alternatives or improve energy efficiency – as well as sticks – like increasingly stringent regulation in the form of bans on solid fuel heating systems. 

While 69% of Polish electricity still comes from coal, the carbon intensity of electricity generation has been on a net decline since the early 2000s and solar installations have also boomed in recent years. And despite challenges related to demand outstripping supply and the gap of a skilled workforce, similar to other EU countries, two major heat pump manufacturers – the Japanese Daikin and the German Bosch – are investing in large production centers in Poland. For many Poles, heat pumps are not only a solution for environmental sustainability, but also for energy security, with citizens throwing heat pump installation parties to celebrate their independence from Putin’s fossil fuels. 

What is next?

With last week’s induction of prime minister Donald Tusk, a new left-leaning coalition has taken power over from the previous nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party. The incoming administration has ambitious goals to increase the share of renewables in power generation to 68% by 2030 (up from 21% today), ease up access to offshore wind development, promote the uptake of nuclear energy (with no operational reactors today) and in general more closely align with the EU Green Deal’s objectives. With the potential – and the stakes – at an all time high, I am very excited to see what comes out of Poland’s energy and climate policy in 2024.