Activists and experts appeal to Prime Minister Donald Tusk to allocate part of the advance payment from RePower EU as soon as possible to regain the financial liquidity of the Program.
The Clean Air Program is on the verge of bankruptcy
Clean Air Program (PCZP) is on the verge of bankruptcy – they warn Polish Smog Alert and Instrat Foundation – In recent days, we have received information about growing arrears in the payment of funds from this program – says Andrzej Guła, leader of PAS – The information was confirmed by the Ministry of Climate and Environment. We know that the gap is already over PLN 300 million and is growing by another PLN 100 million every week. By the end of February, the amount of unpaid money will increase to PLN 700 million. This is an unacceptable situation – adds Guła – we are talking about at least several thousand families who have incurred the costs of insulating their houses and replacing the heat source and are now waiting for a refund.
The Clean Air Program, run by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, has been providing subsidies for replacing old boilers and insulating houses since 2018. The popularity of the Program slowly grew: in 2019, 85,000 applications were submitted, in 2023 – 217,000. Over the five years of the program, the number of applications has reached 754,000. About 2.7 million boilers still need to be replaced. The smog situation last week, when Polish cities were among the most polluted cities in the world, shows that the problem of winter smog is still ongoing.
Urgent actions are needed to unblock KPO funds
In recent weeks, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has declared actions to combat smog through rapid, large-scale thermal modernization. At the same time, the Prime Minister expressed hope that in the second half of the year Poland will become a record holder in Europe in terms of the pace of changes in this field. PAS and Instrat indicate that without immediate action by the government, the Clean Air Program is at risk of slowing down, and the implementation of these promises will not be possible.
– We are surprised by the disproportion between the government’s declarations and pre-election announcements and the meager support currently received by the Clean Air Program – said the president of the Instrat Foundation, Michał Hetmański – the RePower EU advance that Poland received amounts to approximately PLN 22 billion. We appeal for PLN 2 billion of these funds to be allocated to support PCZP – this is what we included in our joint appeal to Prime Minister Donald Tusk. There is money in the budget, but the government’s determination is needed to include it in the Clean Air Program – adds Hetmański.
Polish Smog Alert and the Instrat Foundation appealed to Prime Minister Donald Tusk to take actions to improve PCZP and save it from financial collapse. These organizations appeal to the Prime Minister allocation of PLN 2 billion from RePower Europe for the Clean Air program and urgent actions to unblock KPO funds for this purpose, and subsequently, funds from the Cohesion Fund and other necessary sources of financing. . As the authors of the appeal emphasize, these actions are necessary because Poland is the country with the most polluted air in the entire European Union, which contributes to over 40,000 premature deaths each year.
