Polish Briefing: Social contract for coal phase-out talks in Poland without resolution

What goes in Poland on 26th of January.

The talks on a coal phase-out and social contract for the coal mining sector resulted with no agreement. The Polish government and coal unions are to continue discussions inside dedicated working groups. The deal is to be reached by February 2021.

The unions demanded that the planned gas-fired Ostrołęka C power plant run on coal, which was the original idea, as the plant was supposed to have been Europe’s last coal-fired power generation facility. They also presented “clean coal technologies” which are to be an alternative to the total decarbonization of the Polish energy sector.

Further talks are scheduled for next week. The government planned to finish negotiations in first half of February, so that it could notify the European Commission about the results by end of next month.

Wojciech Jakóbik