Poland's Clean Air programme to be continued under new rules
Poland's National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management NFOSiGW will announce the conclusions of the consultation on changes to the 'Clean Air' programme later this year; the programme will continue under new, healthy rules, the fund wrote on its website.
"The National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management announces that all applications submitted under the 'Clean Air' programme will be processed. We are finalising work on a major reform of the 'Clean Air' programme to stop abuses and increase efficiency," NFOSiGW wrote.
It added that the 'Clean Air' programme has been taken over from the previous government, with low efficiency and a high number of abuses.
"Therefore, this year we have focused on fixing it so that it actually leads to lower bills for households," NFOSiGW stressed.
"We have consulted widely on the necessary changes to the programme and will announce the conclusions of these discussions later this year. The 'Clean Air' programme will continue under new, healthy rules," it added.
Recently, the deputy climate minister Krzysztof Bolesta told PAP that Poland's climate ministry would propose the creation of a Transformation Fund, which would provide permanent financing for, among others, the 'Clean Air' programme. Poland is to apply for PLN 10 billion (EUR 2.3 bln) for this programme from the EU Modernisation Fund.
The programme has undergone several changes in 2024. In mid-June, an energy audit was made compulsory and only heat pumps that are on the green appliances and materials (ZUM) list were included in the subsidy.
The decision was explained, among other things, by the fact that there are many Asian-made heat pumps offered on the Polish market that do not meet the requirements. The idea was also that the pumps should be installed in properly insulated buildings, which would reduce electricity bills.
Another change was the restriction of the possibility for beneficiaries to obtain co-financing under the third part of the programme - this is the highest possible level of co-financing. If beneficiaries benefit once, they will only be able to apply for funding for subsequent buildings under the first part of the programme (basic level of funding). In this case, the subsidy is lower.
Problems with the financing of 'Clean Air' programme emerged in mid-December last year. At that time, the climate ministry informed that payments to beneficiaries were stopped due to the exhaustion of money in the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management NFOSiGW.
In January this year, it was reported that the backlog reached PLN 300 million (EUR 69.1 mln), with 23,000 applications waiting to be processed. Payments were reinstated after two tranches from the national recovery plan KPO were allocated to the programme.
The national recovery plan KPO and the FEnIKS programme (European Funds for Infrastructure Climate Environment) are to continue to be sources of funding for 'Clean Air'.
According to the programme, applications from beneficiaries are to be accepted until the end of 2027. The next two years are to be dedicated to the disbursement of subsidies, and all contracted work is to be completed by the end of June 2029.
jz/ ao/
