Let it Flow, Our Energy or Bright Future: Sociotechnical imaginaries of energy transition in Poland

Abstract

Despite global commitment to work together in tackling climate change, transitions do not occur similarly in different parts of the world. While the EU is setting an ambitious goal of decarbonising its energy system by 2050, Poland remains a member opposing those changes. Although most Poles declare their understanding of the necessity of decarbonisation and support for that process, both current and former governments have not treated this problem as a sufficient stimulus to a substantial energy policy change.Using the lens of Sociotechnical Imaginaries (Jasanoff, Kim, 2015), we explain that resistance to implementing fast changes into the Polish energy system is founded on the complex set of shared imaginaries linked to policy, scientific and lay knowledge. Based on a qualitative analysis of strategic documents of the energy policy in Poland published after 1989, the interviews with key actors in the energy sector, and analysis of government funding programmes for science, we mapped the dominant and alternative SIs of the energy transition in Poland. The analytical framework was based on a sociotechnical imaginaries circulation model used to explain their actions in the Polish energy transition.The study's outcome shows that the dominant SI of an energy system in Poland relates to the preservation of the existing system focused on energy security, a significant role of hard coal and lignite, and prosumers as supporters for the centralised energy system. The alternative imaginaries (associated with decentralisation, energy democracy and renewables) are getting traction and becoming more important.