On Wednesday, December 4, Greenpeace activists staged a bold protest at the Ministry of Industry in Katowice, unfurling a large banner reading, “Coal is finished, stop deceiving!” The protest, coinciding with Barbórka, a traditional miners’ celebration, calls on Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government to adopt a more realistic timeline for mine closures and prioritize a fair transition for the mining sector.
Greenpeace demands the government redirect billions of zlotys in subsidies for mining companies toward renewable energy investments, job re-skilling programs, and energy-efficient housing projects. The NGO highlights that coal-fired power stations are set to shut down by 2035, based on updated analyses, and calls for urgent action to prepare miners for new opportunities.
“Poland’s energy policy is based on the lie that coal has a future,” stated Marek Józefiak, Greenpeace Poland’s spokesman. He criticized the government for propping up unprofitable mines with PLN 18 billion (EUR 4.5 billion) in state aid this year and PLN 137 billion (EUR 34 billion) over the coming decades, as outlined in the 2021 social agreement on mining.
The Polish Industrial Development Agency reported a PLN 9.2 billion (EUR 2.1 billion) loss in the coal mining sector in the first three quarters of 2024. Meanwhile, the share of hard coal in power generation is rapidly declining, with exports becoming unfeasible due to high prices. A Greenpeace report, The Last Decade of Coal, predicts that most coal-fired plants in Poland will close before 2030, with the last closures by 2035.
Greenpeace’s Anna Meres, a climate campaign coordinator, warned that failing to invest in renewables like onshore wind could result in Poland relying on expensive, imported natural gas, jeopardizing the country’s energy security. She emphasized the need for a strategy that provides clean electricity and creates new employment opportunities for miners, citing potential job growth of 50,000 to 100,000 roles in renewables by 2030.
