Global warming, climate change, all these things are just a dream come true for politicians. I deal with evidence and not with frightening computer models because the seeker after truth does not put his faith in any consensus. The road to the truth is long and hard, but this is the road we must follow. People who describe the unprecedented comfort and ease of modern life as a climate disaster, in my opinion have no idea what a real problem is.
By refusing to play by the EU’s restrictive climate rules, Poland has begun to build one of Europe’s most energy-secure economies. While much of the bloc marches in lockstep towards a self-inflicted economic wound called “net zero,” Poland has chosen a different path – one of pragmatism, national interest and, most importantly, energy security. And this path is paying handsome dividends.
By refusing to play by the EU’s restrictive climate rules, Poland has begun to build one of Europe’s most energy-secure economies. While much of the bloc marches in lockstep towards a self-inflicted economic wound called “net zero,” Poland has chosen a different path – one of pragmatism, national interest and, most importantly, energy security. And this path is paying handsome dividends.
Coal Powers Poland
At the heart of Poland’s defiance is a steadfast refusal to abandon coal, the bedrock of its energy system. In 2024, coal, oil and natural gas accounted for more than 85% of total primary energy supply, the highest share in the EU. Coal alone generated 55% of the nation’s electricity in 2024, powering homes, factories and businesses.
Though news media were excited about renewables’ increased share of power generation in June, the country is actively finding ways to make coal a mainstay. The Energy Policy of Poland 2040 (EPP2040) outlines a plan for major utilities like PGE and Tauron to spin off coal-fired plants into separate entities by 2025.
By isolating coal assets, Poland delays aggressive transition timelines, ensuring that coal assets are spared from EU transition rules. Jakub Jaworowski, Poland’s Minister of State Assets, reinforces this strategy, noting that government analysis found no economic justification for divesting coal assets.
Maciej Bando, Poland’s deputy climate minister, has been unequivocal on this point: “I have no doubt that coal units will be needed in the system until they are naturally replaced by nuclear power plants.”
The idea that you can power a modern industrial economy with intermittent and unreliable sources of energy like wind and solar is a dangerous fantasy. Poland must be careful to not follow the examples of Germany and the U.K., where domination of power grids by wind and solar has resulted in unstable power supplies, surging imports and unaffordable power prices.
Upward and Onward
But Poland’s success story does not end with coal. The country is also blessed with newfound reserves of natural resources that promise to further enhance energy security and fuel economic growth. In early 2025, the state-affiliated Orlen Group announced the discovery of a natural gas deposit in western Poland, with estimated reserves of nearly 250 million cubic meters.
The crown jewel, however, is the July discovery near Poland’s Baltic coast of what has been hailed as the nation’s largest-ever oil and gas find. This deposit rivals or surpasses the Barnówko-Mostno-Buszewo field – previously Poland’s largest, with 400–500 million barrels of oil.
Experts suggest its recoverable reserves could make this one of Europe’s most significant hydrocarbon discoveries in a decade. For Polish families, this translates to lower prices, reduced reliance on imports and billions in royalties to fund public services.
Polish reliance on fossil fuels has not hindered growth; it has fuelled it. From 2022 to 2025, Poland’s gross domestic product grew by an impressive 11.6%, outpacing economic giants like Germany, France and Italy and surpassing the EU average. In 2024 alone, Poland’s projected growth of 2.9% dwarfed the EU’s sluggish pace. Poland’s unemployment rate stood at 5.2%, lower than the EU average.
What if other nations were to abandon the self-destructive dogma of net zero and embrace a more rational approach to energy and climate policy? The results would be nothing short of transformative. We would see a resurgence of economic growth, a decline in energy prices, and a return to a more commonsense approach to environmental stewardship.
The climate industrial complex, which has grown rich and powerful by peddling fear and misinformation, would be exposed for the fraud that it is. And the people of Europe, who have been forced to bear the brunt of this failed experiment, would finally be set free.
This commentary was first published by The Daily Signalon July 29, 2025.
Vijay Jayaraj is a Science and Research Associate at the CO₂ Coalition, Fairfax, Virginia. He holds an M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, both in the U.K., and a bachelor’s in engineering from Anna University, India.
The Medieval Warm Period, the natural warm phase between 700 and 1300 AD, cannot be reproduced climate models because the simulations react primarily to CO2. Back then CO2 was not a factor because its concentration level in the atmosphere was pretty much constant. That’s why people would rather keep the Medieval Warm Period quiet.
The Medieval Warm Period, the natural warm phase between 700 and 1300 AD, cannot be reproduced climate models because the simulations react primarily to CO2. Back then CO2 was not a factor because its concentration level in the atmosphere was pretty much constant. That’s why people would rather keep the Medieval Warm Period quiet.
But the facts speak for themselves. Two studies now add further pieces to our knowledge of the medieval climate.
Antarctica
In October 2023, a paper by a team of researchers led by Zhangqin Zheng from the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei was published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews. It deals with historical changes in the Adélie penguin population in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica and their climatic influences.
Two atmospheric-oceanic circulation patterns, the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), have a major influence on the climate and marine ecosystems in the Ross Sea region. From a historical perspective, however, the influence of atmospheric-oceanic circulation patterns on penguin populations in this region remains unclear. The researchers analyzed sediment cores from abandoned penguin colonies on Inexpressible Island in the Ross Sea and reconstructed the changes in the populations of Adélie penguins over the past 1500 years. Zhangqin Zheng and colleagues found that the penguin population on Inexpressible Island peaked between 750 and 1350 AD, possibly due to habitat expansion in a warmer climate during the Medieval Warm Period.
After comparison with historical records of penguin populations from Cape Bird, Dunlop Island and Cape Adare, it was found that all penguin populations increased in the Ross Sea during the period 750 to 1350 AD. The population trend also coincided with extreme swings in the El Niño and SAM circulations.+
From this, the researchers concluded that SAM-ENSO could promote the inflow of circumpolar and modified circumpolar deep water into the Ross Sea and thus increase the influx of nutrient-rich deep water, together with a warmer climate, could promote the efficiency of open ocean areas, so-called polynyas, and the population increase of Adélie penguins.
The study shows the important role of ENSO and SAM as triggers of strong climate fluctuations.
These natural processes are still taking place today and have by no means ended with the start of the CO2 increase.
Poland
The other study comes from Poland. The research group led by Rajmund Przybylak from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, published their work in the journal “Climate of the Past” in November 2023. The article presents current findings on climate change in Poland for the period from 1000 to 1500 AD. This period also includes the Medieval Warm Period. The scientists first studied all available quantitative climate reconstructions that have been produced for Poland in the last two decades. They also produced four new reconstructions using three dendrochronological series and an extensive database of historical source data on weather conditions. The growth of conifers in the lowlands and mountains of Poland depends on the temperatures in the cold season, especially in February and March. All available reconstructions based on dendrochronological data refer to this time of the year. Summer temperatures were reconstructed using biological proxies and documentary evidence. However, the latter are limited to the 15th century. The winter temperature was used as a proxy for the annual temperature proxies, instead of the usual use of the summer temperature.
The Medieval Warm Period probably occurred in Poland from the late 12th century to the first half of the 14th or 15th century. All analyzed quantitative reconstructions indicate that the Medieval Warm Period in Poland was comparable or even warmer than the average temperature in the period 1951-2000.
The coldest conditions in the entire study period were recorded in the first half of the 11th century (both in winter and summer) and in the second half of the 15th century (only in winter). The greatest continentality of climate occurred in the 15th century. A good agreement was found between the reconstructions of the Polish climate and many reconstructions available for Europe.
The two new studies from Antarctica and Poland indicate that the natural climate factors still need to be much better understood in order to be able to incorporate them faithfully into climate models. Currently, the simulations do not attribute a major role to natural climate events, which is a serious mistake.
While Miliband puts our energy security at risk, Poland are building new gas plants:
State-owned PGE, the largest power producer in Poland, said the 1,366-MW PGE Gryfino Dolan Odra power station has entered commercial operation. The facility is now the country’s largest gas-fired power plant.
Officials on Nov. 8 said the station will supply about 5% of Poland’s electricity. PGE officials said the plant is “one of the most modern in Europe.” The investment “will strengthen Poland’s energy security and ensure a stable energy supply for more than 3 million households,” Dariusz Marzec, PGE’s CEO, said during Friday’s launch ceremony.
Miłosz Motyka, the country’s deputy climate minister, said the new facility will “not only have a direct impact on the stability of the electricity system, i.e. on security, but is also another step in the transformation of our economy.”
“Gas investment is a very important part of the energy transition and the move towards climate neutrality,” said Robert Kropiwnicki, deputy minister of state assets. “We are constantly expanding the RES [renewable energy] system.” Kropiwnicki noted, though, that renewables “need parallel stable energy sources working as a base, and at the moment there is no more flexible capacity than gas capacity.” Renewable energy accounted for about 26% of Poland’s power generation in 2023.
Poland in the past week needed to import energy from neighboring countries, including Germany, Sweden, and Ukraine as a lack of wind led to a decline in energy production from wind turbines, according to Business Insider Polska.
Polish lawmakers attending a debate on Wednesday on the new media law in the lower house of Parliament in Warsaw.Credit…Wojciech Olkusnik/EPA, via Shutterstock
The bill, which would ban non-European companies from controlling Polish broadcasters, was narrowly approved in a chaotic session in a win for the right-wing government.
The leader of Poland’s ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, left, with the leaders of two coalition partners, Jarosław Gowin and Zbigniew Ziobro.Credit…Czarek Sokolowski/Associated Press
Centrist Parties Poised to Oust Poland’s Nationalist Government
The election, seen as one of the most significant in decades, was cast as a choice between the defense of Polish sovereignty and liberal values.
By Andrew Higgins Reporting from Warsaw Oct. 15, 2023 Updated 7:10 p.m. ET
Centrist and progressive forces appeared capable of forming a new government in Poland after securing more seats in a critical general election on Sunday, despite the governing nationalist party, Law and Justice, winning the most votes for a single party.
Exit polls showing a strong second place finish by the main opposition group, Civic Coalition, and better than expected results for two smaller centrist and progressive parties suggested a dramatic upset that would frustrate the governing party’s hope of an unprecedented third consecutive term.
…
Piotr Buras, the head of the Warsaw office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, declared the election “a triumph of both democracy and liberalism” that “opens the way for a massive reorientation of Poland’s domestic and European policy.”
While it is possible Law and Justice may cling on – their defeat is not quite a done deal – most pundits seem to be calling that Law and Justice opponents have the numbers to form a new government.
According to Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union address to the European Parliament on 13 September, the EU is doing well thanks to the Green Deal. But millions of people can no longer afford to pay for their energy. But before we get back to energy, a few words about Europe’s migration crisis.
by Samuel Furfari – originally published in Factuel in French. Republished here in English translation with permission of the author.
According to Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union address to the European Parliament on 13 September, the EU is doing well thanks to the Green Deal. But millions of people can no longer afford to pay for their energy. But before we get back to energy, a few words about Europe’s migration crisis. While the small Italian island of Lampedusa had to take in 7,000 migrants in 48 hours – and not climate refugees, as a colleague pointed out to me – Poland complained that the Commission President did not want to see the reality of the problem. Responding to the speech, Polish European Affairs Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk said: “I am convinced that there is a certain reluctance on the part of European leaders and European institutions to notice the problems that plague the EU today.”
We know that relations between the Polish government and the European Commission are not harmonious, as ideological differences clash. In the area of migration, it is clear that Poland does not intend to follow Brussels’s instructions to take on migrants. But tensions have also been evident for some time in the field of energy.
The Polish workshop destroyed by alchemy
Poland can be considered the EU’s main workshop for the production of automotive components, which are then assembled by the major manufacturers in their assembly plants. A large number of SMEs in the mechanical sector have specialized in the production of components for our cars. The electric car poses a serious threat to Poland’s manufacturing industry. An electric motor is infinitely simpler than a combustion engine and requires less labor to produce; in addition, electric vehicles do not need a gearbox or clutch, and even braking is simpler because the engine brake is powerful. It is understandable that Poles are strongly opposed to the obligation to stop selling combustion engine vehicles by 2035, as this will throw thousands of workers who had secure and well-paid jobs in the automotive sector out on the street.
For a while, Germany joined Italy and Poland in opposing this strange decision. Then the first vice-president of the European Commission, the Dutchman Frans Timmermans, pulled out his green environmental magician’s hat and came up with a solution to convince Germany: don’t worry, we will allow internal combustion vehicles to run on electric fuels. E-fuels that do not exist and will never be economical because they have to be made from hydrogen produced from wind and solar photovoltaic energy and CO₂. At the moment, wind energy produces only 2.2% of the primary energy consumed in the EU, but it is promised that there will be so much that it will be enough to produce 100% green electricity and, in addition, synthetic fuels … by 2035 Chemistry forbids such utopias, but we in Brussels-Strasbourg don’t care. Neither does Berlin, and it’s even stranger in the country where the chemical industry was born. In short, the green alchemist who wants to turn life’s escape into energy – CO₂ – has managed to convince Berlin. Left to their own devices, Italy and Poland have therefore been unable to resist the mistake that will destroy the automotive sector, the sector that the United States and China envy us.
Poland rebels
After the failure of Soviet socialism, an ideology imposed by force on the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, they embraced the market economy without reservation. Poland is a good example. Since joining the EU, Eurostat data show that Poland’s growth rate has hovered around 5%, almost double that of the EU-27.
In the car industry, of course, there was no hope of selling the Polski, the Fiat-licensed car produced in Poland. Poland has therefore wisely chosen to become a subcontractor for large companies in the west of the EU. It has managed to organize itself so that its specialized workers produce the parts that German, Italian and French companies assemble in their own country or elsewhere. According to PZPM(the Polish Association of the Automotive Industry), 153,900 people worked in the sector in 2019. However, EU pressure on the automotive sector has reduced this number to 141,400 workers. Similarly, in 2019, Poland produced 434,700 engines, but by 2022 it will only produce 255,100. These cuts of 41% in engine production and 8% in employment are worrying, and it is understandable that the Polish government is very wary and is trying to reverse this trend.
However, Poland has not given up and we have just learned that on 17 July it lodged an appeal with the Court of Justice of the EU (Case C-444/23). The Republic of Poland seeks the full annulment of Regulation (EU) No 2023/851 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 April 1985 as regards the strengthening of the CO₂ emission performance standards for new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, in line with the Union’s climate change objectives. In the alternative, it seeks the partial annulment of that regulation in so far as it relates to the provisions of emission targets for new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles applicable from 1 January 2035, in the event that the Court considers that the pleas put forward do not justify the annulment of the regulation in its entirety.
According to Poland, the EU legislator – the European Parliament and the Council of the EU – infringed Article 192 (2c) of the Lisbon Treaty, which requires unanimity in the Council, because the contested decision ‘ significantly affects a Member State’s choice between different energies sources and the general structure of its energy supply ‘.
Poland intends to defend the well-being of its people
Poland believes that this regulation will have a significant impact on the automotive industry as well as on companies in related sectors, and that the European legislator has therefore failed to fulfill its obligation to promote the well-being of the people of the Union, its obligation to promote social justice, to work for sustainable economic development and to promote economic cohesion, social and territorial solidarity and solidarity between Member States. Warsaw also believes that the legislator has failed to take into account the requirements of promoting a high level of employment and combating social exclusion (Article 9 of the Treaty) and the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of wealth. The argument makes sense, because sustainable development is not just about promoting ecology, but also about ensuring the well-being of society and economic growth. In fact, ‘sustainable’ is the qualifier for ‘development’, although environmentalists have managed to erase the word ‘development’ by replacing the term ‘sustainable development’ with the noun ‘sustainability’. The Polish government disagrees.
Green policy is disproportionate
It considers that the principle of proportionality has not been taken into account because the resulting disadvantages, in particular the costs, are manifestly disproportionate to the objectives pursued. According to Poland, the costs of adapting the EU economy and society to the stricter standards for the reduction of CO₂ emissions laid down in the contested regulation are significantly higher than the resulting benefits. For Poland, the contested regulation imposes a disproportionate burden on European citizens, in particular the most disadvantaged, and on the European car industry, due to the transition to zero-emission mobility. The contested regulation is likely to have serious negative effects on the European car industry, social exclusion, exclusion of the poorest from means of transport,
Carbon market manipulation
Poland also accuses the Council and the European Parliament for failing to provide a sufficient impact assessment of this Regulation (an obligation for all legislative texts presented by the European Commission). It considers that the assessment of the impact of the obligations and objectives set out in the Regulation of individual Member States is fundamentally flawed. Furthermore, Warsaw believes that insufficient account has been taken of the available scientific and technical data, the potential benefits and costs of an activity or its cessation, as well as the economic and social development of the Union as a whole and the balanced development of its regions. In short, this regulation was adopted on an ideological basis which Poland rejects.
At the same time, the Polish government is challenging the number of CO₂ allowances to be placed in the carbon market stability reserve until 2030 in order to artificially increase the price per ton of CO₂. Again, according to the Polish government, the case is based on a violation of Article 192.2c. It argues that this carbon market-manipulating reserve could eliminate jobs in the mining sector, leading to ‘greater social inequality between Member States and increased social exclusion’. Poland’s car sector is crucial, but its coal and therefore mining sector is even more, as the country generates around 70% of its electricity from coal, which is mainly mined in Silesia.
It is unlikely that such an institutional imbroglio over non-compliance with the legal basis of this regulation will be resolved before the European elections on 9 June 2024. But whether Poland loses the case or not, there is no doubt that the Poles will take it into account when they vote.
The Brussels-Strasbourg specialized press deciphered the speech of the President of the European Commission before the European Parliament as her candidacy for re-election. However, the appointment of the President of the European Commission is decided by the Member States. The Italian government, abandoned in the face of migrants, and the Polish government, which will not accept the destruction of its car industry, will know who not to vote for.
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