There are a total of seven tasks for the implementation of which PAS intends to regularly hold Donald Tusk’s government accountable.
List of 7 tasks
Here is their list:
- Development of programs financing the thermal modernization of residential buildings
- Introduction and implementation of legal regulations – emissions from building heating
- Introduction of energy settlement mechanisms supporting clean energy sources
- Development of the Central Register of Emissions of Buildings
- Cities without transport smog – counteracting transport pollution
- Industry, entrepreneurs – reform of environmental protection inspections
- Smog measurement – development of state air monitoring
– The implementation of these tasks will translate into a significant improvement in air quality in Poland and will increase the population of the country’s inhabitants breathing clean air from 2 million to 30 million, reducing the number of premature deaths caused by poor air quality by 21,000. every year – explains Andrzej Guła, one of the leaders of PAS, who initiated the country’s first systemic liquidation of coal-fired boilers years ago in Krakow.
Fight against smog
Today, PAS submitted a list of tasks to the Chancellery of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Climate and Environment, Paulina Hennig-Kloska, announcing a periodic review of progress in their implementation.
– These tasks are interconnected and should be implemented simultaneously to ensure a fully effective fight against smog. It is necessary to accelerate the implementation of thermal modernization programs for residential buildings, i.e. Clean Air, Warm Apartment, Thermal Modernization and Renovation Fund. Actions are necessary in the area of regulations eliminating pollution from building heating. These include: coal quality standards, emission standards for heating devices, anti-smog resolutions and the development of the Central Emission Register of Buildings (CEEB), enumerates Piotr Siergiej, spokesman for PAS.
– The state cannot limit itself only to financial support programs. It is necessary to implement and comply with anti-smog regulations, i.e. coal quality standards and anti-smog resolutions. Only their simultaneous implementation will enable effective use of limited public funds, says Andrzej Guła.
It is about PLN 1.4 billion
The list of 7 tasks also includes recommendations for reducing pollutant emissions from road transport and enterprises. PAS recommends, among others: transfer of PLN 1.4 billion that the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management allocates each year to the so-called local government roads fund, to create a clean transport fund that would finance support for entrepreneurs offering the transport of goods and services operating in cities creating clean transport zones. PAS also recommends increasing control over DPF removal, improving vehicle emission control during annual inspections, and limiting the inflow of high-emission vehicles to Poland by increasing excise tax on the most polluting cars.
In the area of pollution generated by industry and enterprises, PAS sees the need to reform environmental protection inspections, which, in its opinion, do not provide citizens with effective protection against pollution. – The common practice of inspections with prior notice, instead of intervention inspections, completely destroys the possibility of prosecuting criminal activities – explains Andrzej Guła. In his opinion, citizens expect immediate intervention because this is the only effective one.
Assessment of government actions
PAS proposes the development of state air monitoring: increasing the number of stations measuring dust pollution from the current 287 to 400, and in the case of stations monitoring car pollution from the current 20 to at least 100, as well as providing the Inspectorate with stable financing for the maintenance of this network.
PAS announces the first assessment of the government’s actions in October, i.e. at the beginning of the next heating season. – We hope that the declarations made by Prime Minister Tusk’s government regarding the fight against smog will be taken seriously and we will soon see the first effects – says Andrzej Guła. According to doctors’ estimates, on which KAS is based, the implementation of these tasks will reduce the number of premature deaths in Poland caused by polluted air by at least 21,000 per year.
