WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland is not giving up its climate ambitions, a top official said on Wednesday, after the government submitted a climate and energy plan to the European Commission with a green energy target falling short of a pre-election pledge.
Civic Coalition, the biggest grouping in the ruling camp, ran in the Oct. 15 election pledging it would seek to achieve between 65% and 70% of power production from renewable energy sources by 2030.
But the National Energy and Climate Plan dated Feb. 29 that Warsaw submitted to Brussels includes a target of 50% share of renewable power in the electricity mix by the end of the decade.
Deputy Climate Minister Milosz Motyka said in parliament that Poland had to send the baseline version of the plan to close the infringement procedure that Brussels launched against Warsaw for failing to present the document by a June 2023 deadline.
"The ambitious version will include a greater share of green energy, we are not departing from our climate ambitions" Motyka told reporters.
The update of the plan with "additional measures" will be presented by the middle of the year, the government said in the document.
The Law and Justice (PiS) party, voted out last year, has blocked the development of onshore wind for most of its eight years in power and promised unions to keep mining coal until 2049. In 2023, nearly 24% of Polish electricity was generated in renewable sources.
The new government plans to liberalize regulations for wind, which according to experts will double the acreage available to the wind developers.