According to the government’s updated 2030 strategy, as many as 11 % of Polish households may be experiencing fuel poverty. The government is working on new solutions, but it is still unclear who will benefit from frozen energy prices in the second half of the year.

Projections indicate that Poland can stabilise the scale of energy poverty at no more than 11 % in 2030 and no more than 7 % in 2040 says an update to the National Energy and Climate Plan (NERP).

Dziennik Gazeta Prawna’ (DGP) reports, that this means that the government is reckoning with a scenario in which even several million inhabitants will not be able to meet their basic energy needs.

The NAPE is one of the key documents concerning the Polish energy sector, indicating the direction in which the sector will develop and what the effects of the measures implemented by the government may be – broken down into scenarios.

The Ministry of Climate and Environment has announced that it is preparing new solutions to protect the poorest Poles from rising energy prices. Minister Paulina Hennig-Kloska assured that recommendations for a new support system, replacing the price freeze in force until June, have already been submitted by her ministry to the Ministry of Finance.

As DGP reminds, in the Energy Policy of Poland until 2040 (PEP 2040), adopted by the previous government, it was assumed that the scale of energy poverty would be reduced to 6 % by the end of the decade. A similar target was not set in the new document.

In terms of more than 12 million households in Poland, the difference between the two scenarios (the one in line with the PEP 2040 and the 11 % outlined in the updated climate plan) reaches more than 600,000 households.

Most EU indicators for Poland have been improving in recent years, we read, but the Central Statistical Office’s measurements of household budgets show the opposite trend. 11 % of households are struggling with fuel poverty, and another 3 % are at risk.

Adrian Andrzejewski