Poland has been slow off the mark in its green transition. It has a historically powerful coal industry, which has brought with it a large degree of scepticism towards environmentalism. This began to change when Poland joined the EU with its environmental politics and regulation. However, larger scale changes are afoot, and lawyers I spoke to believe that corporates and even state-owned energy companies are beginning to really buy into the so-far alien concept of ESG.
While there are still a number of challenges, Poland’s renewable energy market is developing quickly, from a miniscule base, while the country’s prominent manufacturing sector is also starting to rise to the challenge.