The commissioned poll was conducted by TNS Polska on a group of 1000 between 14th and 16th of March 2014. Publishing the poll coincide with the two-day climate summit that starts in Brussels on the 20th of March. Political leaders of the EU Member States will discuss European climate policy and renewable energy goals. The poll clearly shows that more than half of the Polish citizens want Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk to support the call for an EU goal to cut CO₂ emissions by at least 40%, produce 27% of energy from renewable sources by 2030 and to reform the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading system. 57% state that it is likely that politicians’ position on renewable energy and climate change solutions will affect how they vote in future elections.

‘Poland needs to choose between the future in climate chaos and dependence from Russia ruled by Putin, and entering the new era of clean, safe and Polish energy. The majority of the Poles wish that Donald Tusk led their country on the way towards greener and safer future’ says Alex Wilks, AVAAZ’s climate campaign director.

The poll shows very clearly that Polish citizens want our country to take strong actions on climate change and shift to renewable energy sources. That means that new dirty energy projects like Elektrownia Północ should never be built. Instead, the government needs to support a massive scale-up of renewable energy, which will free Poland from dependency on coal and Russian gas. However, Polish politicians’ position proves to stand in obvious contradiction to the will of the society. Polish Minister of economy and deputy premier, Janusz Piechociński, has already declared that Polish government is ready to veto the EU decision on climate and energy package.