Poland likely to stop mining coal in 2044 – gov’t advisory body

Poland could stop mining coal in 2044 and no longer use it as a fuel in 2046, a few years earlier than the official 2049 deadline for the end of coal, Polish Economic Institute (PIE) experts predict in a report.

PIE released the results of the 'Polish energy foresight' report on Tuesday. As many as 27 experts, mainly from the science and business sectors as well as those from NGOs and public administration, took part in the study.

In the opinion of half of the experts interviewed by PIE, hard coal and lignite will be mined for energy purposes until 2044 at the latest.

Another 37 percent of them said that the cut-off date would be 2040, while 27 percent said that mining would cease between 2041-2045. Only 4 percent of the respondents thought it could continue to 2060.

But all the experts agreed that coal mining would eventually come to an end. "This means that the overwhelming majority agree that the abandonment of coal mining for energy purposes will take place within the next three decades," said the report.

The report emphasised that an earlier departure from coal would prove necessary due to the rising prices of CO2 allowances and the old age of existing coal-fired generation assets.