This country note features selected environmental indicators from the OECD Core Set, building on harmonised datasets available on OECD Data Explorer. The indicators reflect major environmental issues, including climate, air quality, freshwater resources, waste and the circular economy, and biodiversity. Differences with national data sources can occur due to delays in data treatment and publication, or due to different national definitions and measurement methods. The OECD is working with countries and other international organisations to further improve the indicators and the underlying data.
Environment at a Glance: Poland
Poland is a Central European country on the Baltic Sea, bordered by seven countries. With a total area of 312 679 km2, Poland is the ninth-largest country in Europe and is the sixth most populous member state of the European Union. More than half the population lives in rural areas and only 6% lives in urban areas. Poland has experienced impressive economic growth since 2005, allowing the income gap with the OECD average to narrow, and living standards to improve. The economy has been very successful in integrating into global trade, in particular thanks to its increasing role as an outsourcing destination for business services. Poland also has a strong industrial base. Motor vehicles and related parts and accessories are the largest export commodities. Crude oil is the largest import commodity.
Poland is a lowland country: only 3% of the territory is above 500 metres. The country includes a variety of landscapes, from Northern lowlands to Southern uplands culminating in the rocky mountain ranges of Karpaty and Sudety. Due to geophysical factors, such as location at the border of two climatic zones or along birds' migration routes and historical circumstances, the biological diversity preserved in Poland ranks among the highest in Europe. The country is poorly endowed with freshwater resources, but has significant energy reserves, including large quantities of hard coal and major lignite deposits. Domestic oil production is small but domestic natural gas meets about a third of demand. There are also major deposits of copper, zinc and lead ore, sulphur and salt.
Since 2000, GHG emissions have been decoupled from GDP thanks to climate-friendly policies and measures implemented in all sectors (public energy production and supply, industry, transport, small combustion sources, agriculture and waste).
The per person production-based and demand-based (or footprint) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have slightly declined since 1995. They remain just below the OECD averages.
The main GHG emission source is fuel combustion from energy industries (e.g. power plants), transport and small combustion sources (like households). Large industrial combustion sources are regulated by the EU ETS system which incentivise the investment in low-emission technologies. Emissions from small combustion sources and transport are more challenging to regulate. Together with the economic growth, transport emissions have been constantly increasing in recent years as a result of growing fuel use and vehicles amount. They decreased in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated transport restrictions.
Since 2000, coal is being gradually replaced by oil and natural gas in the energy mix. It nevertheless remains the main energy source and fossil fuels continue to provide the bulk of Poland’s energy supply. The share of renewables has increased and is in line with the OECD average.
Despite an increase in clean electricity production, Poland has one of the highest levels of coal-based electricity generation among OECD countries in Europe (OECD, 2023[1]).
Emissions of all pollutants have decreased since 2000 due to policies and measures introduced both at EU and country levels. The significant drop in sulfur oxide (SOx) emissions resulted, among others, from the increasing number of power plants equipped with desulphurization installations.
The largest source of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions is the combustion of fuels in road transport, where emissions have been growing in recent years offsetting emission decreases in other sectors. Transport emissions have grown as a result of increasing number of vehicles and fuel use in the growing economy activity.
Emissions of fine particles (PM2.5) peaked in 2018 and have decreased since.
Since 2010 the Inspection for Environmental Protection has been conducting PM2.5 measurements in agglomerations and cities with a population of more than 100 thousand inhabitants to measure national average exposure to PM2.5. The national average exposure to particulate matter PM2.5 exceeds the 2021 guideline value of 5 µg/m3 recommended by the World Health Organization.
Emissions from fuel combustion processes outside industry (mainly related to heating of individual buildings and meeting other living needs) is the major contributor to PM2.5 concentration in Poland. The effective implementation of the Clean Air program initiated in 2018 should contribute to reduce air pollution emissions from the communal and housing sector.
With only around 1 500 m3/person of renewable freshwater resources, Poland is water-poor. Its total gross abstractions represent around 15% of total renewable freshwater resources, making it a moderately water stressed country. Per person abstractions for public supply have fluctuated in recent years but overall decreased since 2000. They are below the OECD average.
Although the rate of connection to wastewater treatment plants is, at 76%, relatively low by OECD standards, the share of advanced treatment has increased significantly since 2000.
At around 350 kg/person/year, per person municipal waste generation is well below the OECD average. Poland has also made good progress in recent years regarding waste management. While nearly all municipal waste was sent to landfill in 2000, more than half of them are now recovered through recycling, composting or incineration with energy recovery. There is a break in time series in 2023 for municipal waste treatment data.
Unlike most OECD countries, per person domestic material consumption has increased since 2000 and its level is close to the material footprint. Material productivity is lower than the OECD average. Like in most countries, non-metallic minerals make up the bulk of materials consumed, but fossil carriers make, mostly coal, make up a non-negligible share.
Poland is a country with a high biodiversity, which is determined to a large extent by the features of the transitional climate with the influence of oceanic and continental air masses, favorable conditions of geographical location in the central part of the continent, without natural barriers in the east and west, diversified geological structure, varied topography and hydrographic system, soil variability. Poland's natural wealth is also characterized by uneven industrialisation and urbanisation of the country, preserved large traditional areas, extensive agriculture, and extensive and historically durable forests.
Protected areas in Poland consists of 43 500 areas and objects divided into nine forms of nature protection with a different protection regime. The country already achieved the 2030 GBF target (under the Convention on Biological Diversity) of protecting 30% of terrestrial and inland water areas. More efforts are needed to achieve the one to protect 30% of marine and coastal areas. The share of protected areas designated under strict management objectives (IUCN categories I and II) is very low.
This section shows selected policy instruments based on data available for most OECD countries and does not provide a complete overview of countries’ policy mix to achieve their environment-related objectives. Interpretation should consider the country specific context.
The share of environmentally-related tax revenue in GDP is above OECD averages and, unlike other OECD countries, has not decreased in recent years. Like in most countries, the most of these taxes are energy based, followed by transport. Pollution and resource-based taxes are negligible.
Support for fossil fuels in Poland mainly comes in the form of compensations for the decommissioning of coal mines and for the termination of long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) that were signed with power plants. In 2018, substantial aid was provided for restructuring the coal mining sector in relation to covering extraordinary costs borne by mining enterprises. Poland also provides refunds, financed from the state budget, for farmers to offset the tax imposed on diesel used as propellant in farming. In 2022, the government introduced a number of support measures to mitigate the inflated energy prices on households and suppliers (OECD, 2023[1]).
In total, 79.9% of GHG emissions in Poland were subject to a positive Net Effective Carbon Rate (ECR) in 2023. Explicit carbon prices in Poland consist of emissions trading system (ETS) permit prices and carbon taxes, which cover 55.6% of GHG emissions in CO2 eq. With roughly 48.6% of total GHG emissions, coverage is largest for ETS. Fuel excise taxes, an implicit form of carbon pricing, cover 29.2% of emissions in 2023. About 68% of GHG emissions have a Net ECR above EUR 60 per tonne of CO2 eq., a mid-range estimate of current carbon costs. Net Effective Carbon Rates are highest in the road transport sector, which accounts for 17.6% of the country's total GHG emissions. The Net ECR is on average positive in all sectors (OECD, 2024[2]).
After a spectacular increase during 2006-16, the share of environmentally-related government R&D budget in total budget has returned to a negligible level. The share of renewables in public energy RD&D has fluctuated and stabilises at around 15%.
Poland’s environmentally-related inventions in total inventions is close to the OECD averages.
Poland’s development co-operation focuses on its Eastern European partner countries, in particular Ukraine, and select partner countries in Africa and the Middle East. Other than reported costs for hosting refugees, the largest proportion of Poland’s official development assistance (ODA) is provided via European Union (EU) institutions. Poland’s total ODA decreased in 2024 to USD 2.1 billion (preliminary data), representing 0.24% of gross national income (GNI).
In 2022-23, Poland committed 4.5% of its total bilateral allocable ODA in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions, up slightly from 4.4% in 2020-21. Five per cent of screened bilateral allocable ODA focused on environmental issues as a principal objective, compared with the DAC average of 9.6%. Three per cent of total bilateral allocable ODA focused on climate change overall, down from 3.8% in 2020-21 (the DAC average was 34.8%). Poland had a greater focus on mitigation (0%) than on adaptation (0%) in 2022-23. One per cent of screened bilateral allocable ODA focused on biodiversity overall, up slightly from 0.8% in 2020-21 (the DAC average was 7.6%). (OECD, 2025[3]).
References
[3] OECD (2025), Development Co-operation Profiles, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/development-co-operation-profiles_04b376d7-en/poland_abc495f8-en.html.
[2] OECD (2024), Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2024: Gearing Up to Bring Emissions Down, OECD Series on Carbon Pricing and Energy Taxation, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b44c74e6-en.
[1] OECD (2023), OECD Inventory of Support Measures for Fossil Fuels: Country Notes, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5a3efe65-en.
Air pollution
Biodiversity
Greenhouse Gas emissions
Renewably energy sources
The national potential of renewable energy sources in numbers
Report – information of the production of electricity from renewable energy sources in a small installation
Announcements and auction results for the sale of electricity from renewable energy sources
Other data
Economic aspects of environmental protection
State of the Environment reports
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