From Pawel Czyżak:

“Poland is a coal exit success story. Since 2000, electricity from coal is down from 95% of the power mix to 51%. But unlike some other coal exits, this one came with spectacular economic growth.

The EU is pretty much done with coal, with Poland and Germany being the last major coal electricity producers. Both countries decreased coal's share in the power mix significantly in the past 25 years - by 44 and 31 percentage points, respectively. And yet in Poland this decrease is faster, despite the country being widely regarded as Europe's "climate laggard", certainly politically appearing less ambitious on climate than Germany.

But to me the even more surprising bit is Poland's economic success. Since 2000 Poland grew its GDP per capita by 143%. Germany achieved 25% in the same period. In 2025, Poland is expected to be OECD's third fastest growing economy, and first among large OECD countries.

Of course my Polish colleagues will mention a hundred challenges the country is facing, and I agree that things might still go very wrong. But for now, Poland's story shows that you can phase out coal and keep your economy running well. And not just running well - hitting world-leading growth figures.”