Opposition demands Poland leave EU Emissions Trading System

Mar 16, 2026 | Business, Energy & Climate, Politics

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland’s main right-wing opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), has demanded that the government begin the process of withdrawing the country from the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS).

PiS says that ETS, a cap-and-trade scheme launched in 2005 that makes polluters pay for carbon emissions, is particularly onerous for Poland, which relies heavily on coal. The party also points to a constitutional court ruling declaring that the EU’s climate policies are incompatible with Poland’s constitution.

However, the government notes that, as ETS is part of EU law, failing to comply with the system would mean Poland facing large fines. The only other way to avoid it would be to leave the EU entirely, something the government accuses PiS of wanting to happen.

At a press conference on Monday morning in front of the Żerań coal-fired power plant in northern Warsaw, Przemysław Czarnek, who was recently chosen as PiS’s prime ministerial candidate for next year’s elections, announced that his party would today submit a resolution to parliament on ETS.

The document would give Prime Minister Donald Tusk 14 days to present a plan for Poland to exit the emissions system. “Down with the ETS, down with this Brussels scam,” declared Czarnek.

He pointed to the most recent data from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, which show that electricity prices rose 20% year-on-year in Poland in the first half of 2025. That was the third-highest rise among all member states.

The same figures also showed that, when comparing electricity prices to the cost of living (so-called purchasing power standard, or PPS), Poland has the second most expensive power among all member states.

Leaving ETS and the extra charges it brings would “cut energy bills several dozen percent”, claimed Czarnek, who noted that the carbon trading system has a particularly heavy burden on Poland because the country generates over half its power from coal, which is by far the highest proportion in the EU.

“It’s unacceptable that Poles are a cash machine for the absurd leftist climate policy of the EU. Stop the EU’s eco-terrorism,” declared Czarnek, who wants Poland to continue relying on coal.

As further justification, Czarnek also pointed to a ruling last year by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK), which found that the EU’s energy and climate regulations, including ETS, are incompatible with the Polish constitution and breach national sovereignty.

However, the government regards the TK in its current form as illegitimate and ignores its rulings because it contains judges unlawfully appointed by PiS when the party was in power. The tribunal is generally regarded as being under the political influence of PiS.

The government has not yet responded to PiS’s resolution, which is almost certain not to be approved by parliament, where the ruling coalition has a majority.

However, ministers have previously responded to PiS’s criticism of ETS by noting that Poland, along with several other member states, has been pushing for reform of the system that would make its terms more flexible and less costly.

Earlier this month, energy minister Miłosz Motyka told financial news service Money.pl that the EU’s aim for a 90% reduction in emissions by 2024 “is practically impossible for Poland to meet” as it will still need gas- and coal-fired plants while it works to bring its first nuclear power plants online.

Motyka said that “the EU has already begun discussing changes to the ETS system”, largely at the behest of central and eastern European member states. “A policy adjustment is very likely,” he added.

 

Last week, climate minister Paulina Hennig-Kloska likewise told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that the government was working to “change European policy to better suit our needs”, including “reducing the impact of [ETS] on [electricity] bills”.

Meanwhile, deputy climate minister Krzysztof Bolesta notes that there is no legal possibility of leaving ETS. If Poland stopped complying with the system, the EU would launch infringement proceedings and the Court of Justice of the European Union would issue fines until Poland was in compliance.

The only other way to avoid ETS would be to leave the EU entirely, so-called Polexit. “Poland’s exit from ETS means Poland’s exit from the EU,” warns Hennig-Kloska.

Poland’s ruling coalition has recently argued that this is, in fact, what PiS and other right-wing and far-right opposition parties are aiming for.

“Today, no one can have any doubts that the upcoming elections will decide whether Poland remains in Europe and who wants to lead us out of it,” wrote Tusk on Saturday. “We must collectively stop the political madmen.”

PiS, however, denies that this is what it wants. At his press conference on Monday morning, Czarnek said that Tusk was seeking to scare Poles with the idea of an “imaginary Polexit”.

In fact, PiS wants Poland to remain in the bloc but for the EU “to serve Polish interests”, said Czarnek. By contrast, Tusk’s “actions are in the interests of Germany”, he added.


Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Phil MacDonald/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY-SA 4.0)

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