Climate risks in cities are different from those in non-urbanized areas and therefore climate change adaptation is an important element in planning their development. The basic guiding document is the Municipal Climate Change Adaptation Plans, abbreviated as MPAs. Poland’s largest cities – those over 100,000. residents – developed MPAs in a joint project between 2016 and 2018. Separately, an MPA was prepared by Warsaw as part of AdaptCity, and other smaller cities are currently developing their strategies.
The development of the MPA is only the first step in the process of adapting urban space to climate change. This stage is certainly crucial and, as you can read in an interview with Dr. Krzysztof Skotak of the Institute of Environmental Protection PIB, not at all that simple to prepare. Planning alone is not enough. It is still necessary to implement measures, and this involves significant costs.
Adapting to climate change is high on the list of national and EU priorities, which is why significant funds are to be allocated to implement the plans. A potential source of money is the FEnIKS 2021 – 2027 Program (European Funds for Infrastructure, Climate, Environment). It can be seen as a certain continuation of the Operational Program Infrastructure and Environment (OPI&E) The FEnIKS program was approved by the European Commission in October 2022.
A schedule of calls for proposals is posted on the FEnIKS program website. It shows that the filing process will begin in the second half of the year.
For activities FENX.01.02 – Adaptation of urbanized areas to climate change in terms of sustainable stormwater management systems involving green/green/blue infrastructure/nature-based solutions – the call for proposals will begin in July 2023.
For funding for activities FENX.02.04 Climate change adaptation, disaster prevention in:
- Support for sustainable stormwater management systems with green/green-blue infrastructure/nature-based solutions can be applied for from October 2023.
- Education in climate topics, climate change adaptation and water conservation can be applied for from November 2023.
The funds provided for financing the above activities amount to more than PLN 1 billion. FEnIKS will also subsidize MPA studies. Recruitment for this phase of work will begin in June 2023. The expected amount of support is 20 million zlotys.
FENiKS is not only funding for climate change adaptation, but also for health care, infrastructure or water and wastewater management, so it’s worth taking a look at the funding offer. News and FEnIKS program documents are available on the website.