ABSTRACT

Explicit historical references made by the Polish side in response to the Nordstream project, Poland’s plans for the development of nuclear power plants as Germany proceeds with nuclear phase-out, or persistent prioritization of the domestic coal sector over more sustainable energy solutions, constitute a constant source of tension in the European arena. A closer look at the Polish economic situation provides only a glimpse of the complex domestic approaches to energy security, which are rooted in the wider historical, societal and political factors and embraced by multiple stakeholders. This chapter analyzes these broader energy sector dynamics through the prism of security logics. It demonstrates—with the example of the domestic debate on the EU Climate and Energy package and the nuclear energy plans that followed—that Polish energy affairs are frequently driven by the subsistence logic. This logic is periodically overshadowed by the rise of the logic of war in the domestic gas sector, where it leads to the “survival” policy mode that puts the issue of energy supply at the top of the immediate security agenda. However, although the questions of geopolitics tend to dominate the Polish energy security debate, the first grassroots energy initiatives and the emancipatory rhetoric bound to the idea of energy democracy is an overlooked dynamic with far-reaching transformative potential for both the domestic energy sector and socioeconomic model.