On the first day of the Economic Forum, in the special “Environmental Protection Forum” zone prepared in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, the guests could learn more about the details of the environmental programmes carried out by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, as well as listen to many interesting conversations during discussion panels. Two of them featured Minister Henryk Kowalczyk, who devoted his speeches mainly to climate protection and improvement of air quality.

During the panel "Ecological Patriotism - does it pay off? How do we understand sustainable development based on SOR and PEP2030?” he stressed the important role of strategic governmental documents that focus on sustainable development. They highlight not only economic and social factors but also environmental protection.

Later during the day, at the “Free from smog – improving air quality as the challenge of the 21st century”, the Minister pointed to the close cooperation of the Visegrad Group countries in terms of climate protection.

“The climate policy of the Visegrad Group countries is cohesive, because we face similar challenges, such as improving air quality. The solutions proposed by the Polish government comprise the programmes carried out by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, such as Clean Air, My Electricity and AgroEnergy,” said Minister Kowalczyk.

The Minister of Environment also reminded about the changes in the Clean Air programme.

“The programme is currently undergoing subsequent modification stages. I invited municipalities that supported their respective Voivodeship Funds for Environmental Protection and Water Management in the process of accepting and verifying applications to joint cooperation. Municipal officials are already undergoing appropriate training. By doing so, we are opening another distribution channel to further increase the impact of the programme,” said the Minister. 

“We can see that the programme enjoys great popularity. Nearly 80,000 applications for subsidies amounting to more than 1.7 billion PLN in total have been submitted to date,” he added.

The Minister of Environment also thanked NGOs for pointing out the problem of smog for many years. This was confirmed by the judgement of the CJEU regarding the exceeding of PM10 standards by Poland in the years 2008-2015 and the critical Supreme Audit Office report concerning the lack of actions aimed at improving air quality by the previous government in the years 2007-2015. At the same time, Minister Kowalczyk informed that the Ministry of Environment is currently working on an ordinance defining new smog levels.

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The Economic Forum is the biggest political and economic event in Central and Eastern Europe. This year’s edition takes place on 3-5 September in Krynica-Zdrój.