Green Revolution in Cities Municipalities must develop climate plans

The expert positively evaluates the complementation of the Spatial Planning and Development Act with climate issues, noting, however, that the proposed approach, namely the obligation of municipalities to “reduce vulnerability to climate change”, is misguided, because climate challenges – both adaptation and mitigation – have a significant impact on a broader scale. – I recommend separation in art. 1 Section 2 Separate point regarding climate challenges. He emphasizes that it could, for example, read: “Requirements arising from protection and adaptation to climate change.”

Increased support for thermal retrofit and furnace replacement

The draft amendment also assumes an increase in co-financing for low-emission projects, including: thermal modernization or replacement of heat sources from the Thermal Modernization and Renewal Fund to the 90% level. (Currently 70%). At the same time, the municipality’s contribution to the implementation of such low-emission projects will be reduced to 10%. (It’s 30%). In return, the investment amount will be increased almost twice, from PLN 53,000. PLN up to 106 thousand zlotys.

Andrzej Gula from the Polish Smog Alert organization confirms that this is support for municipalities that have pledged to participate in the “Stop Smog” program. But due to the lack of funding compared to the “Clean Air” program, it was not very popular among residents. So far, only a few dozen out of 2,477 municipalities across Poland have participated in the “Stop Smog” programme. The expert emphasizes that increasing the maximum funding amount is a fundamental change because it aims to adjust the funding amount for the “Clean Air” programme, where the maximum funding is PLN 135,000. Zloty. Andrej Gula hopes that municipalities will now be able to complete the programme. I do not expect the “Stop Smog” program to develop, but rather as a continuation of the investments that have already begun. It is known that when there is such a difference in funding, there is a problem in completing the project. As a result of the increased amount of “Stop Smog” support, higher funding will also be given to people who have registered for the program but have not yet started investing, Andrej Jula confirms.

The expert draws attention to another important change in the program – the asset criterion will disappear and only the income criterion will remain. In practice, these are cases where someone earns little, but if he sells his property, for example, plots of land, he will have a lot of money. – Municipalities have often drawn attention to the difficulties in checking the financial situation of people using the program – confirms Andrej Jula.