From a social issue to an ecological issue. A glance at the ongoing transformation of the energy model in Europe from a sociological perspective

The main message of this article is that contemporary environmental challenges should be addressed in an evolutionary way, taking into account ethical, economic, and functional aspects. At the same time, it is important to build a political consensus to include diverse perspectives. In the context of programming changes to the national energy model, it is worth taking into account the Polish experience of systemic change, which was achieved largely thanks to the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarność.” Adopting the transformation path, both in Poland and at the European level, will allow for maintaining continuity between the policy of solving the 19^th-century social issue and the policy of solving the contemporary ecological issue.