The Polish Ministry of Energy presented today its draft national energy policy 2040, whose orientation obviously stands in the way of the Paris Agreement as well as EU’s energy targets by 2030. It also turns a blind eye on the ever decreasing costs of renewable technologies, wind power in particular.
The results of the first Polish new onshore wind auction were also announced today. According to Wind Power Europe, results show that wind power prices have become so competitive that they are much cheaper than coal and even lower than in recent auctions in Germany and France. As a result the Polish government used only 55% of the budget it had allocated for this auction.
Disturbingly, the draft national energy policy by 2040 expects existing onshore wind to be phased out by 2036. With only one more planned auction for new onshore wind, this source of energy is projected to nearly disappear in the Polish energy mix by 2040.
The strategy shows drop in the energy production from coal to 60% by 2030, but this is mainly due to the projected increase of energy demand, while overall amount of coal in megawatt would decrease only marginally before 2030, with new coal plants still to be built.
Wendel Trio, Director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe said:
“The draft Polish energy strategy 2040 is symptomatic of the way the Polish government disdains the transition away from coal towards clean energy. Announced just a week ahead of COP 24, this draft strategy is deeply worrying. Instead of sketching out a bold clean energy transition in the country, it presents the plan to continue its addiction to coal while phasing out onshore wind energy.”
“Since this long-term energy strategy is not fixed yet, Poland should discard it and present a Paris-compatible strategy that accelerates the zero-emission transition, not the opposite.”
ENDS
Contact:
Nicolas Derobert, CAN Europe Communications Coordinator, nicolas@caneurope.org, +32 483 62 18 88
Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe is Europe’s leading NGO coalition fighting dangerous climate change. With over 150 member organisations from 35 European countries, representing over 1.700 NGOs and more than 40 million citizens, CAN Europe promotes sustainable climate, energy and development policies throughout Europe.
