As we read in the press release, in the first week of January 2024, the Ministry of Climate and Environment received z National Fund for Environmental Protection information on arrears in subsidy payments from the program Clean Air. – In the second half of the previous year, applications were accepted for implementation without financial support. In mid-December 2023, payments were stopped due to the exhaustion of money in the National Fund for Environmental Protection and provincial funds, we read.
Is it because of lack of imagination?
– These are the consequences of PiS blocking funds from the KPO and not implementing other EU programs. It’s a lack of imagination and living on credit. Poles are paying the bills for this irresponsible policy today, says PAulina Hennig-Kloska, Minister of Climate and Environmentquoted in the announcement.
– We work intensively. PiS left Poles with a problem. Now we have to solve it. We need to sort out the legal issues and find the money. Every week, the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management does not pay out approximately PLN 100 million, he points out Urszula Zielińska, deputy minister of climate and environment.
The number of applications exceeded funding?
As he reminds me Peter Sergeispokesman Polish Smog Alert in an interview with Forsal.pl, in 2023 the number of applications submitted under the “Clean Air” reached 220 thousand This is a record for the five years of this program’s operation. – This is due to the new rates introduced in January last year. It can be expected that the number of applications will continue to increase in spring, he says.
However, according to Sergei, this program has become a victim of its own success. – The money that would go to citizens under it is so decent that a wide range of people benefit from it. The question is what the Ministry of Climate and Environment will do about it. I assume that money from… KPO, but they must appear with us as soon as possible. Only government representatives, including the Prime Minister Donald Tusk at the forefront announced that we will face a fundamental change related to the thermal modernization of buildings, and “Clean Air” finances the insulation of single-family houses. This is the right time to ask the government when these measures will be launched, says the PAS spokesman.
Air quality in Poland is improving
However, he emphasizes that from year to year air quality in Poland slowly getting better. – In some places, such as Kraków or Rybnik, it is spectacular. However, we cannot rest on our laurels. When the Clean Air program was launched, the number of furnaces to be replaced was estimated at 3.5-3.7 million. We managed to eliminate approximately 1 million furnaces. This is a big change, but we are left with approximately 2.7 million boilers to replace. You can see that the process has started and is just starting to accelerate. If we maintain last year’s pace, we will solve the problem of the so-called Cinderellas for over 10 years. If we speed up twice, we would basically meet the term of office of the current government. This government has the ability to reduce winter pollution levels to the future high standards it will soon adopt European Commission. This would mean victory over smog – says Piotr Siergiej in an interview with Forsal.pl.
According to the ministry, delays in subsidy payments occurred in the first half of December. The problem first affected WFOŚiGW in Poznań, Łódź, Rzeszów and Wrocław; currently, all WFOŚiGW have restrictions on subsidy payments. The ministry also states that 23,000 applications are currently waiting for consideration. conclusions. The average value of the subsidy paid for one co-financing agreement for the current recruitment process (from January 3, 2023) is PLN 41,000. zloty.
