2020 action programme aimed at reducing low-stack emissions

Program działań na rzecz ograniczenia niskiej emisji w roku 2020

In 2020, a new programme was established to reduce harmful air emissions over the Metropolis GZM.

The programme is the Metropolis’s next step towards the future. We want the quality of air we breathe to be high and on par with European standards.

The area of the Metropolis is highly diversified. On one hand, it is formed by big and robust cities and smaller municipalities that - for various reasons - have incomparably smaller budgets. We are much like "communicating vessels" - we can achieve a great deal when all our components are provided with sustainable growth. It is a “win-win” business model where the strong can boost their potential, while the smaller ones are also provided with favourable conditions to strengthen their growth potential.

That is why we decided to allocate PLN 90 million for activities related to the reduction of low-stack emissions, which is to translate into a better life for the inhabitants of our area.

The range of projects we plan to finance is very wide. The programme determines the financing of such tasks as:

• construction and reconstruction of infrastructure used for production and distribution of energy from renewable sources;
• energy modernization of buildings owned by municipalities,
• elimination of “low-stack emission” through replacement/modernization of individual heat sources or connection of buildings to networked heat carriers in real estate owned or otherwise held by the municipality, related to the performance of its own tasks;
• construction of RES installations in energy-modernized buildings owned by municipalities belonging to the Metropolis GZM,
• purchase of zero-emission rolling stock,
• protection of clean air and protection of health.

but also construction of bicycle routes or modernization of lighting and others.

This is the first edition of the Programme, and the expectations towards municipalities and the quality of investments planned to be implemented are very high.

The mechanism of the Programme is as follows:

• The Metropolis Assembly allocates from the annual budget an amount to be distributed in the form of designated subsidies for tasks carried out by the municipalities belonging to the Metropolis GZM, allocating pools for each of the five subregions of the Metropolis. The allocation of funds to the individual municipalities of a given subregion is decided by the very municipalities constituting the subregion. The subsidies may be granted both to major investment tasks which are of great significance for the development of the entire area of the Metropolis GZM and to those which are consistent with the “Strategic Action Programme of Metropolis GZM Until 2022”. The projects can count on the co-financing of up to 85% of investment costs.
• Applications of individual municipalities are collected by the leaders of five subregions:

- Bytom subregion (Bytom - leader, Ożarowice, Piekary Śląskie, Radzionków, Świerklaniec, Tarnowskie Góry, Zbrosławice),

– Gliwice subregion (Gliwice - leader, Gierałtowice, Knurów, Pilchowice, Pyskowice, Rudziniec, Sośnicowice and Zabrze),

– Katowice (Katowice - leader, Chorzów, Mysłowice, Ruda Śląska, Siemianowice Śląskie, Świętochłowice),

– Sosnowiec subregion (Sosnowiec - leader, Będzin, Bobrowniki, Czeladź, Dąbrowa Górnicza, Mierzęcice, Psary, Siewierz, Sławków, Wojkowice),

– Tychy subregion (Tychy - leader, Bieruń, Bojszowy, Chełm Śląski, Imielin, Kobiór, Lędziny, Łaziska Górne, Mikołów, Wyry).

• The leaders of sub-regions submit the agreed list of projects to the Management Board of the Metropolis to be reviewed from the formal and legal point of view.
• The Management Board of the Metropolis approves the list of projects by resolution.
• The list of proposed investments is then submitted to the Metropolis Assembly, which adopts a resolution on granting the subsidies in question.