On January 1^st 2025, Poland assumed the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU). The Presidency will last until June 30^th 2025 and marks the beginning of the new trio with Denmark and Cyprus. Under the slogan “Security, Europe!”, the Polish Presidency is promoting security as a top priority, encompassing the seven key pillars of external, energy, economic, food, climate, health and information security. 

With ongoing global conflicts, the historical context at the European and international levels has prompted Poland to advocate for stronger European security. Moreover, with the formation of the new European Commission and the outcome of the US elections in November 2024, the Presidency intends to place itself at the centre of the debate on EU security. 

But what does this mean for climate action? In its published priorities, Poland recognises the need to act on energy security and the risks that extreme climate events pose to the European population, but has not clearly prioritised climate and environmental issues.  

A competitive decarbonisation for the EU 

The Polish Prime Minister has emphasised that competitiveness will be a key focus during the country’s six-month Presidency. The Presidency highlighted the importance of restoring fair competition for the EU industry on the global stage. Bellona believes that boosting the EU’s economic competitiveness can and should be achieved without compromising climate goals and targets. However, the Presidency’s priorities remain ambiguous when it comes to outlining the goals for decarbonisation and competitiveness. 

Industry is a crucial component of the European economy, directly providing thousands of high-quality jobs. At the same time, it is also one of the main contributors to climate change. The energy-intensive nature of many industrial activities, coupled with CO₂-emitting chemical processes, makes industry a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. To meet the EU’s climate targets, industry must decarbonise by adopting electrification where possible, increasing energy and material efficiency, transitioning to alternative feedstocks where feasible, and addressing unavoidably generated CO₂ through abatement technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). 

Regarding industrial policy, the Polish Presidency had stated its commitment towards “a strong industrial policy strengthening the competitive position of European companies and ensuring economic security”. The Clean Industrial Deal (CID), set for release on February 26^th, will be discussed in the coming months and the Presidency has a unique opportunity to ensure that the CID shapes the industry of tomorrow. The Presidency highlights the energy aspect of the CID and claims that it will support the development of technologies to facilitate the transition. However, the specific technologies in question remain unclear. A systemic, science-based perspective is crucial to ensure that the CID delivers the industrial transformation Europe needs for long-term competitiveness. Therefore, Bellona calls on the Polish Presidency to prioritise three key areas, as outlined in Bellona’s Roadmap for 2024-2029. 

Furthermore, the Polish Presidency supports increased funding for transport infrastructure under the Trans-European Transport Network – TEN-T. In Bellona’s view, the scope of the TEN-T framework must be broadened to accommodate CO₂ transport not only via pipelines but also by ship, rail, barge, and truck—modes currently excluded under the TEN-T regulation. Bellona has continuously advocated for the deployment of cross-border, open-access CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure, with a regulatory and coordination framework at EU level, targeted support to de-risk investments, and conditions for fair access to CO₂ infrastructure for industrial emitters.  

Financing the climate targets 

The Polish Presidency marks the beginning of a new institutional cycle, and for this reason, the political momentum to shape the Union’s priorities and the management of funds is essential. Accordingly, the Presidency acknowledged the role of the upcoming post-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) package and the EU’s resources, together with the “stimulation of public and private investment” in industrial competitiveness. Bellona has been actively pointing out the issue of the investment gap in climate solutions and believes a wide range of instruments should be used to fill this gap. At the same time, Bellona finds it crucial to ensure an ambitious and realistic industrial decarbonisation while maintaining the competitiveness of European industries. Therefore, as Bellona suggests in its Roadmap, on the one hand, the fight against climate change should be at the centre of the MFF discussions – especially in the MFF conference in February mentioned in the new Presidency’s program – with enough funds directed to additional climate policies and disincentivising those funds that are not compatible with the EU’s net-zero targets. More funds should also be directed to the Connecting European Facility (CEF), as they contribute to a more interconnected cross-border energy and climate infrastructure, including EU’s first CO₂ networks. On the other hand, Bellona agrees on the importance of public and private investment stimuli towards the industrial sector, but with a clear focus on clean technologies and solutions compatible with the EU climate targets.  

Finally, the Polish Presidency acknowledges mitigating energy prices and implementing the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) as key in “improving the global competitiveness of the European economy”. To do so, more capital should be allocated and shifted from fossil-based activities to renewable energy systems (RES) and low-carbon initiatives. As for the CBAM specifically, Bellona has considers it a crucial tool for enabling the full implementation of the EU Emission Trading System (ETS) to high emitting sectors, while at the same time mitigating the risk of carbon leakage and encouraging cleaner production in third countries. The climate is and must remain at the heart of the CBAM, the same must be the case for its implementation.  

Redefining energy security 

The Polish Presidency declared that it would work to update and strengthen the European Energy Security Strategy, ensuring that due attention is paid to physical and digital infrastructure security. In addition, the Presidency will focus on achieving complete independence from Russian fossil fuels, with increased reliance on renewable energy sources. Bellona supports the Presidency’s aim to broaden the definition of energy security to include more affordable energy prices, wider access to new technologies and environmental protection.  

However, the current fossil fuels-based system must be reshaped to efficiently allocate the available renewable resources. Bellona emphasises that electrification is crucial for increasing the EU’s energy security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity grids must be a key component in the strategy to ensure the integration and optimisation of renewable energy across Europe. An integrated electrified energy system across the EU is essential to improve flexibility and resilience and to address the challenges of intermittency posed by the growing reliance on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.  

Therefore, in Bellona’s view, it is essential to consider a broader approach to the concept of security, without sacrificing established climate goals. Bellona underlines that greater energy security goes hand in hand with the energy and climate transition. Tackling climate change through emissions reductions and renewable energy integration is essential for building a resilient, sustainable energy system. 

Making climate ambitions real 

The inclusion of combating misinformation about climate and environmental policy among the priorities of the Polish Presidency is positive, especially with the focus on the positive effects of an energy transition. However, the Presidency must emphasise that achieving substantial emissions reductions and increasing the removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere are both critical. Bellona has shown that accurately tracking our climate progress is key to ensuring that these actions are accounted for and genuinely contribute to climate action rather than delaying progress or creating new loopholes for European emitters. Transparent mechanisms to track and validate these reductions are essential for maintaining credibility and driving meaningful change. 

Other climate priorities remained vague and at worst weak, thus falling short of the ambition to meet climate targets. Bellona expresses concern over the lack of a clear agenda for revising the EU climate law revision and further climate actions. Therefore, we urge the Presidency to be more ambitious and, when discussing climate targets, and align any policy development with climate science to ensure effective and meaningful action. In Bellona’s view, a clear and strong 2040 target is essential. These targets should aim for net emission reductions moving towards 95% by 2040. Furthermore, the Presidency should advocate for separate and distinct targets and policies for gross greenhouse gas emissions reduction, net carbon dioxide sequestration in the land use (LULUCF) sector and permanent carbon dioxide removals. 

Lead markets for low-carbon materials 

The Presidency declared they will be monitoring and coordinating the revision of the public procurement legislations, such as the Public Procurement Directive, with a particular focus on continuing the debate on procurement in the context of industrial policy. 

While promoting demand-side initiatives like public procurement in industrial policy is welcome, Bellona calls on the Presidency to set mandatory environmental criteria in public tenders to enable the creation of lead markets for low-carbon products. The current Public Procurement Directive does not require Member States to monitor and report on the implementation of green public procurement policies, making it difficult to evaluate the uptake and effectiveness of them across the EU. Bellona asks the development of a standardised reporting mechanism to simplify monitoring and track the use of environmental and social criteria in public tenders across the Union, to leverage and strengthen the Single Market criteria in public tenders.   

Additionally, there are no clear and concrete actions to reduce embodied carbon in buildings and infrastructure, nor mention of the implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). Bellona asks for the Presidency to encourage the development of ambitious whole-life carbon requirements for buildings, and to create the conditions to extend this methodology to infrastructure projects across the EU, focusing especially on emissions coming from the steel and cement sectors. 

Conclusion 

While the Polish Presidency presents an opportunity to address critical challenges, its current priorities fall short of aligning European competitiveness and security with the urgent need for climate action. Bellona’s Roadmap for the 2024-2029 mandate calls on all the institutions to act according to the broader mission to achieve climate neutrality as it will be pivotal to also strengthen the EU security structure. By embedding ambitious and science-based climate goals into the discussion, the Presidency can play a key role in facilitating this new European cycle. Focusing on industrial decarbonisation, renewable energy integration, transparent climate policy and green procurement will be key. Through these efforts, the Presidency can lead the EU towards a resilient, competitive and climate-neutral future. As such, Bellona calls on Poland to implement more concrete and ambitious climate policies and well-functioning markets for a net-zero world.