The Polish government has announced plans to increase its coal production to curb an expected increase in coal imports to 17 million tonnes in 2018, compared to 13.3 million tonnes in 2017, according to an Oct. 8 report by Mining Technology.

Poland is the largest producer of coal in the European Union, but it has seen a 7% reduction in its thermal coal to 53 million tonnes last year. Most of the coal imports come from Russia, according to state-controlled trader Weglokoks.

Poland's Deputy Energy Minister Grzegorz Tobiszowski said the country has to increase its coal production by five to six million tonnes by 2025.

Poland has previously announced plans to decrease its dependency on fossil fuel and reduce the share of coal in the energy mix to 50% by 2040 from the current share of 80%. Tobiszowski said that the increase in coal production will not hamper the national sustainability plan to increase the share of renewable energy. He said that the move is only to cater for the sudden jump in coal imports.