Paradoxically, today’s cities – though often associated with ubiquitous concrete and greenery development – are now one of the leaders in ecosystem protection and nature restoration. Despite numerous efforts taken in recent years, Polish municipalities still need support in environmental protection in urban agglomerations. “Business also plays a significant role in this,” says Dr. Eng. Paweł Sałek, president of the League for Nature Conservation. The cooperation between business and local governments for nature conservation was one of the topics of the conference organized by the League for Nature Conservation in collaboration with PGE. “We heavily invest in environmental protection in each of our heat producing units, which are located in the largest cities and agglomerations,” says Paweł Śliwa, vice-president of the PGE management board.
“Nature in cities must be protected, especially since it is an element that has a very positive effect on the lives of residents. Keeping the natural fiber that we have in cities, plus creating new places for recreation and rest will mean that life in these cities will be simply better,” Dr. Eng. Paweł Sałek tells Newseria Biznes agency. “For this purpose, well thought out, good urban and spatial planning, escape from the concrete jungle is essential. The fundamental issue is creating new recreation places for residents, active protection of green areas that exist in cities, and creation of new urban spaces to make these forest, park, and valuable natural areas even more. Water retention, protecting water areas, and restoring rivers to their meandering shape is also an important issue.”
Urban greenery is not only evenly trimmed lawns, flower beds or perfect parks. Many Polish cities are natural gems, for example, the entire Warsaw’s Vistula section, with its adjacent floodplain forest, protected within the Natura 2000 European network. The freely meandering, half-wild Vistula river, creates islands and sandy beaches, which are a habitat for many rare species, just like the surrounding forest. It’s a unique piece of nature in comparison to other European cities.
In addition to this, in the capital there are also protected landscape areas, nature reserves, landscape parks, nature monuments, ecological use sites and nature-landscape sets, where species protection of plants and animals is in place. Meanwhile, in the vicinity of Warsaw, there stretches a national park, whose protective zone partially covers areas located within the city limits. Although these are generally associated with ubiquitous concrete, tree cuts or developing green spaces, it is cities that are currently leading the way in rebuilding the environment and protecting ecosystems.
As experts point out, such actions are especially important in the context of climate change, because concrete and asphalt in cities intensify extreme weather events resulting from them. The “Report on the State of Polish Cities: Environment and Adaptation to Climate Change”, developed by the Urban Policy Observatory of the IRMiR, shows that in cities – especially large ones – a series of phenomena related to this are accumulated. These include, for example, air pollution, the so-called urban heat islands phenomena (a climatic phenomenon that consists in the occurrence of higher temperatures in the city than in the surrounding areas), or a lack of biologically active areas, which would provide appropriate retention of rainwater and prevent floods and flooding. The response to these problems is, however, blue-green infrastructure, i.e., among others, the development of urban greenery, rain gardens, green walls and roofs, properly designed parks, natural retention basins, ditches, ponds or revitalized watercourses, to which wild character and natural course have been restored. Despite many actions taken in recent years in this direction, Polish municipalities still need support in environmental protection in urban agglomerations.
“A serious role to play here is also business. We already have in Poland good examples of companies engaging in nature conservation in cities, e.g. through construction of nest boxes for birds, “says the president of the League for Nature Conservation.
One of the leaders of such actions in Poland is PGE, which – in addition to supporting national parks and tree planting as part of the Forests Full of Energy program, which has been running for 20 years – actively engages in the care of wild birds, including white storks, kestrels, swifts or peregrine falcons. The latter is one of the most rare species of birds, strictly protected in Poland, that has chosen chimneys of heat and power plants and power plants belonging to the PGE Group as its nesting places, among others in Gdynia, Gdansk, Lublin and Torun. Over the last two decades, nearly a hundred young falcons have hatched from the nests cared for by the company, and their population is gradually being revived.
“Wild birds like our units. Peregrine falcons, which avoid human contact very much, have chosen flue cooling towers as breeding places. We are also constantly volunteering, planting trees as part of the Forests Full of Energy action. There are many of these activities. We cooperate with nine national parks, conducting active training, also for children and adolescents, on whom the future of subsequent generations will depend. We educate, we also say where environmentally friendly energy comes from,” says Paweł Śliwa, vice president of the board of PGE Polish Energy Group for innovation.
As he emphasizes, nature conservation in cities and care for the natural environment is one of the factors determining the design of new investments within the group.
“Let me give Zgierz as an example. As part of the research and development process, we are implementing a hybrid unit there, where on the one hand we supply the producing unit, and also store heat in an environmentally friendly way through the construction of photovoltaic panels, electrode power sources, which do not emit harmful substances,” says Paweł Śliwa.
PGE’s operations are closely related to cities. The group is the largest producer of electricity and heat in Poland, and its company PGE Energia Ciepła manages heat networks with a length of 700 km, it also has 16 cogeneration plants, among others, in Gdańsk and Gdynia, Szczecin Bydgoszcz, Torun, Kielce, Lublin, Rzeszow, Krakow and Wroclaw. According to the strategy, by the end of this decade heat in PGE EC’s heat and power plants is to be produced 100% from low- and zero-emission fuels, which will contribute to improving the air quality in cities.
“Our producing units operate in the largest Polish cities and agglomerations. We heavily invest in environmental protection in each of them,” stresses the vice president of PGE.
An example of cooperation between local government and business, which contributes to improving the environmental status, is Kraków. The company decided to use its resources and actively engage in the fight against low emissions in the city, among others by developing a heat network – liquidation of coal-fired boilers and connecting buildings to the municipal heating network. In the years 2013–2020, 87 buildings with a total demand of almost 13 MWt were connected to it. This significantly contributed to improving the air quality in the capital of Malopolska.
“The cogeneration plant in Krakow has for years been consistently implementing a policy aimed at minimizing its impact on the environment,” says Beata Czerniak, director of the Support Process Department at PGE EC, Branch No. 1 in Krakow. “Above all, we produce heat in the process of high-efficiency cogeneration. At the same time, we promote district heating as an environmentally friendly product, an alternative to emission sources, such as stoves and home heat generators. We actively participated in the low emission reduction program in Krakow, as a result of which 24,000 boilers were liquidated in the city.”
The Kraków heat and power plant is the largest producer of heat and electricity for the city. It generates over 70% of the district heating delivered to the residents of Krakow.
“On the other hand, by 2030, in accordance with the adopted strategy, we plan to move away from coal-fired sources and fully switch to low- or zero-emission sources. Thanks to previous investments, we have already significantly reduced the emission of dust, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. In 2022, dust emissions were 93% lower, and sulfur emissions were 95% lower than in 2005,” says Beata Czerniak.
Protection and improvement of the environmental status in cities was the main topic of the conference organized by the League for Nature Conservation under the patronage of the Ministry of Climate and Environment, which took place at the Warsaw Institute of Environmental Protection – National Research Institute. During panels and discussions, topics related to, among others, adaptation of cities to climate change, ecological education or environmentally friendly energy were raised. Experts also proposed measures to support local governments in environmental protection in urban agglomerations. The event was partnered by the PGE Group, which has been cooperating with the League for Nature Conservation – the oldest pro-environmental organization in Poland, operating for almost 100 years – for two years in implementing joint projects, including nature education and ecological education.
