Poland in Denmark

The guests were welcomed by Mateusz Mońko, chargé d'affaires a.i., and Mie Johnson from State of Green, a public-private Danish partnership with focus on the energy transition. State of Green was a host and a co-organizer of the project.

Sebastian Barkowski and Tomas Anker Christensen assessed the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow as an international success. Sebastian Barkowski stated that – from the Polish point of view – emphasizing the social dimension of energy transition is particularly important. Mr. Barkowski presented actions taken by the Polish government in order to reduce the share of coal in the Polish energy mix to 55-56% in 2030, from around 70% nowadays. He stressed that the transformation must be fair, it must also take into account environmental issues and the necessity to retrain employees. Barkowski pointed out that the understanding for different points of departure of the member states should prevail within the EU debate. He also referred to the Polish-Danish Baltic Pipe project, which will lead to a reduced share of coal in domestic energy production and an enhanced national energy security.

Ambassador Tomas Anker Christensen pointed to a great need for joint Polish-Danish expertise and experience in energy transition and phasing out the coal. Denmark has knowledge and technologies in the field of renewable energy sources, but it did not have its own mines and went through the process of phasing out coal many years ago. Poland is currently transforming its mining industry, closing down the mines and understands the social costs of this process. Therefore, Poland could play an important role in sharing know-how with third countries.

The seminar and its online streaming gathered around 40 participants from the Danish administration, industry organizations, diplomatic corps and business.