Poland temporarily suspends acceptance of applications in Clean Air programme

Zawadzka-Stepniak stressed at the press conference that the suspension is 'temporary' because the entire programme needs to be reformed.

A new updated version of 'Clean Air' is expected in spring 2025, when the acceptance of new applications will resume, she added.

The head of Poland's environmental fund explained that the scale of abuses and irregularities is so large that it is not possible to run the programme and the deep reform in parallel, hence this decision.

Zawadzka-Stepniak assured that all applications submitted by 2pm local time on Thursday (November 28) will be processed; as of this hour, new applications are no longer accepted by the system.

The deputy head of NFOSiGW Robert Gajda explained that the 'Clean Air' reform is primarily intended to curb abuses, such as the overestimation of unit costs. Maximum prices will be introduced for the individual elements for which subsidies can be obtained.

"Unfortunately, people were cheated, their credulity was exploited, and this is something we have to fight against," Gajda stressed.

"There needs to be an end to 100 percent funding for a few houses, to the repeated over-billing by dishonest contractors for services and materials, to the extortion of the power of attorney whereby companies received an advance on their account, went out of business and all responsibility fell on the unwitting beneficiary," he added.

Under the reform, the highest, maximum subsidies for the least well-off will be given only to building owners, and those who have owned for three years. Operators will be introduced to prepare the application and help the beneficiary to go through the whole investment and bring it to completion according to the Fund's guidelines.

Contractors will have to have public liability insurance. Auditors will also have to actually inspect the buildings. Gajda acknowledged that this may increase the cost of the audit grant, but the Fund is prepared for this.

The deputy head of NFOSiGW also said that the current backlog is a result of the more than 200,000 unprocessed applications for PLN 2.6 billion (EUR 603.5 mln) found by the new management in the Fund a year ago, which were 'lying in bags'.

"In addition, last year the Fund received an average of 3,000 applications per week in 'Clean Air' programme, this year 6,000-7,000, sometimes over 10,000 per week. The backlog today amounts to 160,000 applications," Gajda reported.

At the same time, the head of NFOSiGW Dorota Zawadzka-Stepniak assured that the Fund has secured money for both the overdue applications and future ones under the new iteration of the 'Clean Air' programme.

"We have received almost PLN 14 billion from the [EU funds under the national recovery plan] KPO, more than PLN 7.6 billion from the FEnIKS programme, and currently an application for over PLN 10 billion from the Modernisation Fund is being prepared," she said.

The head of NFOSiGW stipulated that the EU Modernisation Fund money would not be available until June 2025 at the earliest.

According to the Fund's information, since the beginning of the Clean Air Programme, it has received more than one million applications for approximately PLN 37 billion, of which more than 820 thousand contracts have been signed for approximately PLN 26 billion. So far, almost PLN 14 billion has been paid out to 650 thousand beneficiaries.

The reform of the Clean Air Programme was lately announced by the deputy minister of climate and environment Krzysztof Bolesta in a recent interview with PAP.

He indicated that this included the issue of pre-financing investments. Such a mechanism has been introduced since July 2022. Up to 50 percent of the maximum subsidy amount can be received in advance even before the renovation begins. The remaining 50 percent is paid upon completion of the investment.

This money goes to the works contractor, who has a contract with the programme beneficiary to carry out the task. Pre-financing is available to those who qualify for the increased and highest level of subsidy in 'Clean Air' programme. As intended, this form of assistance is aimed at people who cannot afford to carry out the thermal modernisation investment on their own.

Bolesta pointed out that this mechanism generated abuse of the programme.

The deputy minister also said that, as part of the programme reform, in addition to the functioning list (ZUM) for heat pump manufacturers, the ministry would like to propose a list of contractors for thermo-modernisation investments.

"This would not be a compulsory list, but more of a list of verified contractors. We are currently working on a path for the verification of such entities and how it will be possible to get on and off such a list. We will see if this can be introduced with the forthcoming reform," he said.

Problems with the financing of 'Clean Air' programme emerged in mid-December last year. At the time, the environment ministry announced that payments to beneficiaries were stopped due to the exhaustion of money in the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. The disbursements were reinstated after two tranches of the EU funds from the national recovery plan KPO were allocated to the programme.

'Clean Air' is the largest anti-smog programme in Poland. Owners of single-family houses, for example, can receive funds to replace non-environmental heat sources, as well as to improve the energy efficiency of the building through, among other things, its insulation.

jls/ mick/ asa/ ao/