Greenhouse gases

Poland contributes to the activities towards climate change mitigation undertaken by the international community – as a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change since 1994 and to the Kyoto Protocol – since 2002. In the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol, Poland committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 2008–2012 by 6%, compared to the base year. In the second commitment period, established in the Doha Amendment, the European Union, its Member States and Iceland committed to reduce their average annual greenhouse gas emissions in the years 2013–2020 under the joint fulfilment of commitments. The common reduction target was expressed as a commitment to achieve average annual emissions of 80% of the total emissions of all countries in the base years.

Submitting its nationally determined contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, the European Union, along with its Member States, originally (in the NDC submitted to the Secretariat in 2015) committed to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 relative to 1990 levels. Subsequently, in accordance with the decision of the European Council of December 2020, the EU increased its greenhouse gas emission reduction target declared in the NDC to at least -55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels, immediately making the relevant submission to the UNFCCC Secretariat.

According to the provisions of Article 4.6 of the UNFCCC and decision 9/CP.2 Poland uses 1988 as the base year for the estimation and reporting of GHG inventories for the main gases (CO2, CH4 and N2O). Different base years have been established for other groups of gases: 1995 for HFCs, PFCs and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) and 2000 for the nitrogen trifluoride (NF3).

The detailed results of the GHG emission inventory together with the methodology for their estimation are presented in the National Inventory Report 2023 (NIR) and the CRF tables available below.