ABSTRACT
In Poland, energy poverty started being analyzed in 2013 and currently there exists a consistent body of knowledge to characterize energy poverty in the Polish context. However, no definition was introduced into the legislation until 2020, preventing efficient identification of energy poor households. In a context where most energy poor households use coal for heating and where cities are plagued by local air pollution caused by the combustion of solid fuels, the issue of energy poverty is strongly linked to coal as an energy source for heating. On the one hand, combating local air pollution and climate change implies reducing the use of coal. On the other hand, certain stakeholders argue that replacing coal as a source of heating energy would increase energy poverty. To deal with the issue of energy poverty, no dedicated support instruments for energy poor households have been set up to date. The issue is only indirectly dealt with by social support policies, but these are strictly related to the incomes of households. As only half of Polish energy poor households are simultaneously income poor, this implies that 50 percent of energy poor households are presumably left with no social support. Poor targeting can be observed in thermal retrofit policies as well, which offer loans rather than subsidies and which are currently limited to detached houses.
