Energy Use and Sustainability Performance in Poland: An Indicator-Based Assessment in the EU Context

Sustainable development is a core objective of European Union (EU) policy, making energy transition performance a key analytical and policy issue. This article examines the role of energy and the energy sector in Poland’s sustainable development through an indicator-based empirical assessment for 2010–2024 in a comparative EU context. In addition to the national analysis, Poland’s trajectories are positioned against the EU-27 average and selected Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies in order to assess whether the observed changes represent relative progress, convergence, or persistent lagging. The study combines a harmonised indicator framework with formal trend tests, structural-break analysis, a simplified additive LMDI decomposition, and exploratory cross-indicator analysis. The results show strong improvement in macro-level energy efficiency, continued growth in the renewable-energy share, and a reduction in the emissions intensity of energy use, while also revealing an asymmetric transition pattern in which transport remains less stable and energy self-reliance declines. From a comparative perspective, Poland performs relatively strongly in economy-wide, energy-efficiency improvement, but less favourably in renewable-energy deployment than the EU-27 average and the selected CEE comparators. Overall, the findings point to measurable progress in efficiency and decarbonisation alongside persistent tensions between sectoral adjustment, renewable energy expansion, and energy security.