Poland should accelerate its transition away from coal - WB report
The 2049 deadline for completing the transition away from coal should be tightened, the World Bank wrote in its latest report. It added that if Poland wanted to achieve climate neutrality in 2050, it needs to become independent from coal a decade before that date.
"High and continuously rising extraction and production costs, an aging fleet (the average age of Poland’s hardcoal and lignite power plants stands at 42 years), and the increasing level of fiscal support needed to keep the sector alive not only makes its demise inevitable but also calls for a faster coal phaseout trajectory than currently foreseen by the 2049 target," the World Bank wrote in it's latest Country Climate and Development Report on Poland (CCDR).
It was highlighted that although the industry is unprofitable as a result of high domestic mining costs and rising carbon and methane prices, it continues to stay afloat through various forms of support.
"To meet NZ2050 (net zero emissions by 2050), the country’s coal reliance must end a decade before the current government’s 2049 deadline, including by repurposing current support to the sector to mitigate social and labor impacts in affected local economies and by developing new industries in lagging coal regions" the World Bank underlined.
Under the current policy, Poland will achieve a 79 percent reduction in domestic emissions by 2050, but according to WB experts, moving towards the NZ2050 scenario is the optimal scenario for Poland's further economic and social convergence.
"A faster decarbonisation scenario would mean greater use of domestic renewable energy sources (...) to 62 percent of total energy production in 2050, compared to only 39 percent in the scenario of maintaining current policies," the WB representatives stressed during the presentation of the report.
jz/ han/
