Poland suffers higher emission costs compared to EU peers

The cost of producing one megawatt of energy in Poland is three times higher than the EU average due to the country's heavy reliance on fossil fuels, the Polish Economic Institute (PIE) has reported.

EU countries must purchase CO2 emission certificates, known as EU ETS, to compensate for the emissions they produce. Year to date, the average price of EU ETS has been close to EUR 84 per tonne.

In Poland, the cost of producing one megawatt of energy is about PLN 280 (EUR 59) as most of Poland's energy comes from coal. This is three times more than the average of all the 27 EU member states. Compared to France, the cost is 12 times higher. For Germany, the cost is three times lower than in Poland, PIE, a government think-tank, said in a report on Saturday.

Sweden is the cleanest energy producer in the EU, with only a 2-percent share of fossil fuels in energy production.

In Central and Eastern Europe, Slovakia is the leader as 53 percent of its energy comes from nuclear sources and is followed by Latvia, which produces 47 percent of its energy from hydropower.

Prices of the EU emission certificates have remained relatively stable in 2022 after a steep rise in 2021, when they increased from EUR 33 per tonne of CO2 in early January 2021 to EUR 80 at the end of 2021.