Our report offers a regional perspective on CEE’s energy transition, mapping key trends, challenges and opportunities.
CEE and the EU14 differ in their economic structures, energy mixes and levels of development across individual industries.
As a result, the energy transition is likely to follow different pathways across the two regions. To better understand the opportunities and challenges shaping this process in CEE, we have prepared a report that provides a regional outlook.
Coming soon: CEE on the Transformation Pathway
Available from 24.11.2026
Join our insight session presenting the key findings of ORLEN’s CEE on the Transformation Pathway report
The report’s authors, Anna Gradoń, Aleksandra Sałata and Aleksandra Korba, will discuss the key trends shaping the energy transition in Central and Eastern Europe, including electrification, decarbonisation and energy security. The webinar will provide insights into the report’s findings and explore the challenges and opportunities facing the CEE region.
Date: 24 November 2026, 10:00 AM
24-11-2026
Key Findings
- Driven by ongoing electrification, the share of electricity in final energy consumption in CEE is projected to rise from 19% in 2025 to 33% by 2050. Meeting this growing demand will require a substantial expansion of generation capacity, with total installed capacity expected to exceed 325 GW by 2050, including around 17 GW of new nuclear power and approximately 180 GW of renewable energy capacity.
- CEE’s energy mix remains more carbon-intensive than that of the EU14, with coal still accounting for around 30% of power generation compared with just only around 5% in the EU14. At the same time, the region offers significant decarbonisation potential, with CO₂ abatement costs estimated at around half the EU14 level and power-sector carbon intensity projected to decline by nearly 90% by 2050.
- Despite ongoing decarbonisation, conventional fuels will remain part of the region’s energy system for decades to come, particularly in transport. While consumption of petroleum products in CEE is projected to decline by over 40% by 2050, demand is still expected to exceed 1440 PJ. The analysis presented in the report indicates that natural gas is expected to continue playing an important role in electricity generation by providing flexibility and supporting system stability during energy transition.
- The discussion around CEE’s energy future is no longer driven solely by decarbonisation. Increasingly, it is also shaped by energy security, resilience and strategic autonomy. In response to geopolitical challenges, CEE has significantly reduced its dependence on Russian gas from nearly 70% in 2021 to around 20% in 2024, while building a more diversified and resilient gas supply system. As a result, security of supply has emerged as a fundamental condition for delivering CEE’s decarbonisation ambitions while maintaining competitiveness and affordability.
- As energy security becomes an increasingly important priority, the role of large integrated energy companies in CEE is growing. Their scale and market position mean they can play an important role in the development of strategic infrastructure and investments supporting the region’s energy transition.
- Unlike in the EU14, where demand for basic petrochemical products declined by around 15% between 2015 and 2025, demand in CEE remained broadly stable. Over the same period, petrochemical production capacity in the region increased by around 10%.
- The region has the potential to become one of the European Union’s key engines of growth and transformation, but its long-term competitiveness will increasingly depend on productivity gains, innovation and the ability to develop and deploy new technologies.
- As CEE faces a distinct set of energy security, industrial and transition challenges compared with the EU14, a deeper understanding of the region’s specific circumstances is becoming increasingly important. Reflecting these differences in analysis, public debate and policy design will be critical to delivering an effective energy transition and achieving shared European climate and energy objectives.