Poland should rethink its dependence on heavily polluting coal and focus instead on developing cleaner energy sources, the International Energy Agency said. "The new energy strategy must determine if coal is going to sustain the Polish economy over the longer term or if it is to be a burden for the country," the IEA said in its 2016 review of the country's energy sector, last week.
The agency reported that coal accounted for 81 percent of Poland's electricity generation in 2015 and that the heavily indebted coal-mining sector - one of Europe's largest - provided more than 100,000 politically sensitive jobs.
The right-wing government of Beata Szydlo plans to present a revised energy strategy this year, but the coal-miner's-daughter-turned-prime minister has long insisted that plentiful domestic coal is key to Poland's energy security.
Her Law and Justice (PiS) administration has also set tough regulations on the installation of wind turbines, in effect blocking competition from the renewables sector, which in 2014 covered about 10 percent of national energy needs. The IEA said "the future of renewable energy in Poland looks uncertain" in light of this and other legislative moves by the PiS.
The agency commended the government's efforts to replace antiquated coal-fired electricity and heating plants with more efficient and cleaner units. But it cautioned that significant policy support was needed to reach Warsaw's "very ambitious goal" of having one million electric vehicles on the roads by 2025.