The primary objectives included in the draft submitted by the Ministry of Climate include counteracting smog and energy poverty and energy efficiency improvement of buildings. The results of the Act will include the elimination of the release of fine particles generated by low-emissions area, i.e. from the urban sector (these include mainly individual households, small, local boiler stations, workshops and service establishments). Launching the Central Register of Building Emissions and improvement of the “Clean Air” and the “Stop Smog” programmes will aid in reaching these objectives.

These aims comply with the initiatives for clean air, environmental and climate protection announced by the Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during his exposé in 2017 and 2019.

Over 80 percent of single-family housing units in our country are heated with solid fuels. Out of that, 3 million use technologically obsolete coal boilers and wood, which emit considerable pollution.  In turn, over 70 percent of single-family houses are not thermally isolated or have no thermal isolation.

Central Register of Building Emissions (CRBE)

• The Central Register of Building Emissions will be launched as an IT mechanism used for identifying low-emission sources from buildings. The system will be used for gathering the key information on the sources of urban emissions, which will be obtained through a nation-wide survey.
• The system will allow to collect the information on the energy state of buildings, information on the forms of state aid (grants, preferential credits) granted for thermal upgrading or replacing boilers in buildings. The system will include information on the forms of social assistance or other forms of assistance granted from public funds to the inhabitants of social welfare homes.
• Each building will be recorded in the system based on the criterion of the output of the heat source, regardless of the legal status of the building, i.e. regardless whether it is used by a natural person or a business owner. The CBRB will therefore include not only residential buildings, but also public buildings, including small, local boiler stations or small manufacturing plants, granted that the nominal thermal input of the fuel combustion source does not exceed 1MW. 
• The CBRB will allow for an ongoing monitoring of information on the available financial resources for initiatives related to air quality protection, including for thermal upgrading of buildings or for replacing heat boilers with excessive emissions under public funds. This information will allow to obtain financial support for initiatives related to environmental protection, including for thermal upgrading.
• The CRBE will allow for an easier collection of citizens’ data. The data will allow to take optimum decisions with regards to planning and managing heat, electricity and gas fuel supplies in each municipality.
• For local government units, the CRBE will serve as a freely-accessible tool for surveying buildings.
• It is estimated that the survey will cover 5-6 million buildings at the initial rate of 500 thousand buildings each year.
• The common survey of buildings will be carried out during the submission of written declarations on heat and combustion sources - until the end of 2021.
• This means that building or property owners or managers, who had been using heat and combustions sources (gas boilers, solid fuel boiler, tiled furnaces and coal ovens) prior to the introduction of the new regulations will have to submit a dedicated written declaration on using such devices to the municipal authorities. The data collected from the declarations will be entered in the CRBE.

"Stop Smog” Programme

• Measures planned to facilitate the “Stop Smog” programme which has been effective since February of 2019. The programme will be implemented until the end of 2024. The entire budget of the programme amounts to PLN 1.2 billion. The programme is addressed to municipalities where the concentration of air pollutants exceeds the EU standards.
• The funds under the programme are allocated to the municipalities based on concluded agreements, and are later forwarded to persons who experience energy poverty, living in single-family homes which require thermal upgrading. That includes less affluent persons, who experience difficulties with meeting their energy demands, i.e. heating their apartments or water.
• Thermal upgrading in single-family homes involves, for instance, replacing non-environmentally friendly heat sources with heating systems which meet the low emission standards.
• The new solutions will allow to increase the popularity of the programme among local governments.

That means, among others:

• Decreasing the minimum number of single-family units required to apply for funding under the programme (from 2 percent to 1 percent of buildings or 20 buildings) and a one-off lifting of the limit in the cases where the municipality has previously concluded at least one agreement.
• Reducing the required level of heat demand reduction from 50 percent to 30 percent, calculated as a sum of all low-emission undertakings implemented by the municipality. Energy conservation at 30% becomes the most optimum level due to the condition of the buildings inhabited by persons who experience energy poverty.
• Decreasing the maintenance period of the results of the low-emission initiatives from 10 to 5 years.
• Increasing the scope of low-emission undertaking to include:
  • connecting the building to electrical grid;
  • modernisation of the existing heating, gas or energy connection;
  • providing the building with access to RES installations (including the liquidation of the source which does not meet the low-emission standards).
• Allowing for the possibility to implement the low-emission initiatives also in buildings owned by the municipality.
• Allowing inter-municipal unions and districts to apply under the programme on behalf on multiple municipalities.
• Lifting the obligation to develop municipal low-emission plans.

“Clean Air” Programme

• The Clean Air Programme was introduced in September of 2018 and will be continued until 2029. It is directly dedicated to the owners of single-family housing units.  It aims to improve the energy efficiency of these buildings, and - in result - to decrease the amount of atmospheric pollutant emissions.
• The programme also involves thermal upgrading of single-family housing units and replacing old, ineffective heating equipment with new and environmentally-friendly heaters.
• Subsidies are granted under the programme. The subsidy for thermal upgrading and replacing the old heating source is available to natural persons who own or share ownership of a single-family house or a separate housing unit within the house with a separate land registration.
• Launching credits and loans for municipalities is also planned.
• Improvement of the programme:

• The funds under the Environment Warranties and Indemnities Fund (established by Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego and financed by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management will be used to issue warranties and indemnities for the payments of credits and loans granted for environmental projects appointed by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. The warranties will also cover credits granted for undertakings carried out under the “Clean Air” programme.
• Financing for voivodeship fund will also be available from the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. This will facilitate their cooperation as well as the cooperation between the voivodeship funds with the local government units, in particular with municipalities.
• Up to PLN 20 thousand in funding will be granted to natural persons with an annual income of up to PLN 100 thousand.
• Funding of up to PLN 32 thousand was planned for persons with lower income (in the case of families where income per person does not exceed PLN 1400 per month, or in the case of a single-person household with income of up to PLN 1960).
• The Beneficiary of the “Clean Air” programme will also have the possibility to apply for up to PLN 5 thousand in subsidy for a micro-installation with a power output of 2-10kW (similarly to the My Electricity programme).

The amended act will enter into force 30 days after it is published in the Polish Journal of Laws, except for the package of solutions which will become effective at other dates.