Sustainable Energy Scepticism and Right Wing Populist Parties in Poland: Why Has Sustainable Energy Transition Been Hindered for So Long?

Poland represents a country with a very troubled and reluctant transition to sustainable energy. Since 1990 until now, it has undergone rather chaotic twists and amendments of renewable energy policies. It has provided no ground for any particular system of renewable energy suppliers to develop and the threshold of the renewable energy was mainly, if not solely, achieved due to the EU pressure. One potential source of reluctance towards sustainable energy transition was the scepticism of the key political parties. During the last four years the country has been governed by the right-wing populist party (PiS). In many countries the right wing populist parties are the greatest challengers of sustainable energy policies. However, Polish case seems to be more complicated as the transition has been hindered also under the rule of the (relatively) more liberal political party (PO). The aim of this paper is to contribute in understanding the nature of party scepticism towards sustainable energy transition in Poland. By focusing on Poland as a case study, the paper addresses two research questions: (i) what best explains the long-term low salience of sustainable energy transition at party and (ii) what is the exact role and causal mechanism of interest-based, structural (consequences of neo-liberal globalisation), and ideological (climate change is rejected per se) factors shaping the key political parties’ (especially that of PiS) stance on sustainable energy transition? The key research method applied is process tracing accompanied by quantitative content analysis technique of party manifestos, party social media accounts, selected state and private mass media and selected legislation (between 2010 and late 2019)..