The air in the capital will poison further. Warsaw's PO and Law and Justice (PiS) councilors, by a joint vote, rejected a ban on burning solid fuels within the city, which could have helped in the fight for clean air.
A ban on burning coal and wood in stoves and fireplaces within the city has been in effect in Krakow for more than two years. Similar regulations will soon go into effect in Sopot. Warsaw's PO and PiS councilors, however, did not agree to similar regulations in the capital. They rejected a resolution submitted by residents as part of a civic legislative initiative to ban the burning of coal and wood in domestic stoves starting in the fall of 2023.
disappointment
Photo: Bohusz Bilewski / Greenpeace
The draft resolution, signed by several hundred people, was prepared by the ClientEarth Lawyers for the Earth Foundation and the City Is Ours Association. It had been lying in bureaucratic desks for 10 months, only to be addressed by politicians now. Earlier this week, the resolution received a negative opinion from the Committee on Environmental Protection. The initiators of the action do not hide their disappointment. They point out that the project was an expansion of the declaration that President Rafal Trzaskowski made in February 2020. At the time, the politician announced that Warsaw would eliminate coal burning. Since then, however, no radical steps have been taken.
sluggishness
There has also been recent buzz about the replacement of fossil fuels going at a tortoise's pace. As Justyna Glusman, who is leaving the office, admitted, the reason is, among other things, insufficient resources and the number of employees delegated to process applications submitted by residents.
Unfortunately, the voice of residents and their many months of work were once again ignored, and the participation tools praised and promoted by Warsaw City Hall did not work. The fight for clean air and residents' health looks good only on paper and in the verbal announcements of Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.
Barbara Jędrzejczyk, chairwoman of Miasto Jest Nasz.
smog kills
As researchers from Harvard University and University Collage London have counted, the share of deaths related to air pollution is 23.8 percent, which translates into 93,842 deaths per year nationwide. In Warsaw, the standards for PM10 and PM2.5, which are poisonous and harmful to human health and life, are sometimes exceeded at least two and sometimes three times. This situation occurs for a third of the year.
Mobilization
With one of the longest district heating networks in Europe, Warsaw should therefore intensify investments in connecting more buildings to the city network, replacing solid fuel stoves, fuel subsidies and helping people who cannot afford other sources of energy. Also important are measures to reduce traffic and transport smog generation, which is responsible for some 60-80% of pollution.
