资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Energy systems around the world are facing significant pressures. The long-term goal of global decarbonization operates in tandem with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and new uncertainties about oil and gas supplies after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Decarbonization in the coming years will mean a major shift towards low-carbon energy sources and increased energy efficiency, and away from fossil fuels. In the nearer term, however, there will also be a focus on shifts within the fossil fuel sector—specifically, a shift away from Russian energy sources, and adjustments in the fossil energy mix in reaction to higher global oil and gas prices.

Both near- and long-term energy industry transitions impact workers and communities who depend on those industries for employment and as a driver of local economies. Given this, it is as important as ever to understand the role of public policy in managing such transition. Examples of past experiences addressing such transitions may serve as a useful guide for decisionmakers facing similar challenges today. One such example is the ongoing journey of the hard coal mining regions in Poland as they shift towards a low-carbon future.

Poland’s transition away from coal started more than 30 years ago. Since then, hard coal production has gradually decreased by 63 percent (from 147 million tons in 1990 to 54 million tons in 2020), and employment in the mining sector has declined by 80 percent (from roughly 390,000 to 80,000 jobs). These declines have reflected the falling economic and financial viability of the Polish hard coal mining sector in a changing political and economic landscape—once a cornerstone of the Polish economy, hard coal mining has become less competitive in the free-market economy that developed following the fall of communism in 1989.

In response to these declines, policies have been implemented to restructure and bolster the competitiveness of the sector, reduce unemployment among former coal workers, address the social and economic consequences of mine closures and associated job losses, and stimulate economic development outside the coal sector. This report discusses these policies and, where empirical analysis is available, examines their outcomes. This report focuses on Upper Silesia, where most of Poland’s hard coal mining operations are located. In Lower Silesia, hard coal mining was phased out completely in the 1990s, and only one hard coal mine is operating in the Lublin coal basin in eastern Poland. The report also does not cover Poland’s three lignite regions, which face different challenges and have been the subject of a different set of policies.