Michał Kurtyka is a distinguished fellow with the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center and former minister of Poland’s Ministry of Climate and Environment.
As Poland’s first climate minister (2019–2021), he led adoption of the country’s 2040 Energy Policy, launching key transition programs such as My Water, Green Public Transport, Green Cars, and The City of Tomorrow. Under his leadership, Poland saw record growth in photovoltaics, a million prosumers, and new industrial alliances for hydrogen, biogas, and offshore wind.
He earlier served as government plenipotentiary and president of COP24, where he oversaw implementation of the Paris Agreement. As undersecretary of state in the Ministry of Energy (2016–2018), he managed energy innovation, climate policy in fuel and gas, and supervised major state-owned energy companies.
Michał Kurtyka studied physics and economics, graduating from École Polytechnique in Paris and completing research in quantum optics at NIST under Nobel laureate William D. Phillips. He later specialized in industrial organization under Nobel laureate Jean Tirole, studied international economics at Louvain-la-Neuve, earned a master’s from SGH Warsaw School of Economics, and defended his PhD at the University of Warsaw.