The subject of coal in Poland concerns not only the famous Silesia. The plans to reduce and eliminate hard coal and lignite mining apply to as many as six voivodeships - each of which has to develop its own National Just Transition Plan in order to obtain funds for a relatively gentle departure from coal from the EU funds. We are talking here about the following voivodeships: Śląskie, Dolnośląskie, Wielkopolskie, Małopolskie, Łódzkie and Lubelskie. Lignite is also mined in the Lubuskie Voivodeship, but employment in the mining industry is negligible here. Therefore, observers of the energy transformation are now focusing on six voivodships, which, in different ways and at different rates, implement the plan to abandon coal. All these voivodships are currently preparing National Just Transition Plans. They are to allow these regions to take advantage of the mechanisms of a just transition, in particular from the resources allocated for this purpose in EU funds. This will help to mitigate the effects of carbon departure.
"ZEPAK plans to leave coal at the earliest – a mine and power plant in Wielkopolska and PGE in its mine and power plant in Bełchatów. There, the process has a chance to end before 2030. The Śląskie and Lubelskie voivodships want to extend the exit path more. The situation and declarations of the Dolnośląskie voivodship and of Małopolska are not fully known yet. We will probably know them in the middle of this decade," Aleksander Szpor from the Polish Institute of Economics (PIE), noted.
"Three voivodships – i.e. Śląskie, Dolnośląskie, and Wielkopolskie, are already treated by the European Commission as future beneficiaries. The remaining ones – i.e. Łódź, Lublin, and Małopolskie, are only just preparing their plans. Negotiations between trade unions and the government are still underway. determining the period for which workers will be kept in the mining sector. However, it is worth considering that the departure from coal will most likely occur sooner – despite the retention of workers in the sector. I do not think that in the 1940s market conditions and the quality of work offered by mines were attractive Although the mines will have the right to operate longer – it is not certain that there will still be people in Silesia or other regions who want to work in this sector,” Szpor said.