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Urban Agenda – towards sustainable and climate-neutral cities

04.03.2020

Improving the quality of life of residents and supporting cities in their transition towards sustainability and climate neutrality – these are the main objectives of the Urban Agenda of the Ministry of Climate, announced on 4 March 2020 in Warsaw. The event, which was attended by the Minister of Climate Michał Kurtyka, was accompanied by the inauguration of a series of urban workshops to be held in all 16 voivodeship cities.

Minister klimatu Michał Kurtyka

Cities are a particularly sensitive area, serving as a focal point for all the most pressing environmental challenges of our times. The high level of urbanisation in Poland means that climate change will have an impact on the dynamics of urban development, thus affecting the quality of life of city dwellers.

Heat waves and urban heat islands, heavy rainfall and the resulting flash floods, hurricane winds – these are the threats we have to face. Thus, increasing our resilience to climate change is a challenge of utmost importance, which will determine the safety and the quality of life of the city dwellers, while creating an opportunity and potential for more sustainable development, the Minister pointed out.

The pursuit of climate neutrality requires us to go back to the drawing board when it comes to the functioning of our cities, he added.

For several years now, the Ministry of Climate, and earlier the Ministry of Environment, have been undertaking intensive measures to support the sustainable and pro-climate transition of cities, as evidenced by the “Urban Adaptation Plans” project, which provided the 44 largest cities in Poland with a diagnosis of climate threats, including an assessment of their vulnerabilities to negative impacts of climate change. The project resulted in packages of adaptation measures prepared individually for each city.

We not only support good planning at a local level, but we also provide specific financial instruments to support urban policy. In recent years, cities have received several hundred million złotys for the implementation of projects concerning rainwater management and development of urban greenery from both the national budget and EU funds, which we earmarked accordingly. All of this resulted in specific projects being carried out in cities, which brought about a marked improvement of safety and comfort of life of their residents, in particular when it comes to rainwater management, Minister Kurtyka pointed out.

The Urban Agenda of the Minister of Climate aims at expanding the activities and measures, which have been carried out to date, as well as at integrating and adjusting the tools accordingly so as to increase their effectiveness and efficiency.

Our key objective for the Urban Agenda is to improve the quality of life of city dwellers. We know that we will be able to achieve this objective only if we work out the action plans together with the key actors, who are involved in shaping urban policy, highlighted Michał Kurtyka.

To that end, we are going to organise a series of workshops in all 16 voivodeship cities. Today, we are going to hold the first workshop in Warsaw, with the following ones taking place throughout March and April. It is very important for us that you actively participate in today’s and future workshops. I am glad that our invitation was met with such great interest, he added.

The first workshops will be attended by representatives of all entities responsible for designing and implementing urban policies – NGOs, academia, experts and local governments.

Key 4 elements of the Urban Agenda

Highlighting best practices

The Urban Agenda will examine the progress of cities in the context of their environmental policies. We are going to collect and compare local data concerning waste management, air quality, green areas, sustainable mobility, as well as water and wastewater management. The survey will be conducted in two categories – cities up to 100,000 residents and over 100,000 residents.

We are also going to organise the Climate City contest with an award for the best project aimed at protecting the city and adapting it to climate change. Another competition envisioned as part of the project will be a contest for secondary school students to develop a Climate Change Adaptation Plan for the school area and its immediate vicinity, organised by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. The winning project will receive funding for its implementation.

Launching additional support tools

Another element of the implementation of the Urban Agenda will be the launch of additional support tools, including a competition for green and blue urban infrastructure (a competition for grants for cities concerning urban investments aimed at adaptation to climate change and climate protection) and additional financing for urban investments (additional call for proposals for sustainable rainwater management systems, including solutions based on nature, under the Operational Programme Infrastructure and Environment 2014–2020). We are also going to organise calls for proposals for project co-financing, concerning green and blue infrastructure in cities, municipal district heating systems, cogeneration, protection of ecosystems, pro-climate measures in schools, within the framework of the Environment, Energy and Climate Change Programme from the EEA Grants and Norway Grants.

Simplification of regulations and the existing programmes

The accessibility of the Clean Air Programme will be improved by simplifying the application and grant rules. We are also going to propose changes to support the development of low-carbon urban transport.

Developing new solutions

We want to work together in order to determine what needs to be done in order to improve the quality of life of city dwellers. The aim of the workshops, which will be held in each voivodeship, will be to work out specific solutions – legislative initiatives, financial mechanisms, as well as other solutions aimed at supporting cities.

Workshop dates:

  • 4 March, Warsaw,
  • 10 March, Białystok,
  • 12 March, Łódź,
  • 17 March, Gdańsk,
  • 18 March, Bydgoszcz,
  • 25 March, Poznań,
  • 26 March, Gorzów Wlkp.,
  • 27 March, Szczecin,
  • 1 April, Krakow,
  • 2 April, Rzeszów,
  • 7 April, Wrocław,
  • 16 April, Kielce,
  • 21 April, Opole,
  • 22 April, Katowice,
  • 27 April, Lublin,
  • 29 April, Olsztyn.

Photos (3)

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