In the past it was because we had 400k+ coal miners who were very well organised, so any attempt to touch the coal industry resulted in protests and literal tir

In the past it was because we had 400k+ coal miners who were very well organised, so any attempt to touch the coal industry resulted in protests and literal tire fires in Warsaw. That number went down to 80k by 2020, but they still vote in concert, so any governing party has to tread lightly. Nowadays it's just that there's a lot of old infrastructure - both power plants and residential heating and noone wants to step up and replace it, because that would mean additional costs - we're a stingy folk. As a result the coal industry is currently being subsidised to the tune of 9bln PLN (€2bln) annually. As for air quality: during the winter it's just awful - mostly because of homeowners who burn coal dust and garbage for heating. I live in Wrocław and bought an air purifier in September, but already had to replace the HEPA filter that was supposed to last a year, because a week of PM2.5 over 200ug/m3 was enough to clog it entirely.