Invitation to the conference “Air beyond borders”

You are invited to participate in the conference “Air beyond borders – anti-smog resolution as a tool to improve air quality” which will take place on 23 November 2016 at the Polish Aviation Museum in Krakow. After the conference, from 4:00 pm, a consultative meeting of the draft Air Quality Plan for the Malopolska Region will start.

Conference program:

12:00 am-12:20 am Welcome of the participants – Wojciech Kozak, Deputy Marshal of the Malopolska Region

12:20 am-12:40 am Actions planned for improvement of air quality in the Malopolska Region – Tomasz Pietrusiak, Deputy Director of the Environment Department, the Marshal’s Office of the Malopolska Region

12:40 am-1:40 pm Strategy for improving air quality in Poland – moderated panel discussion with experts and opinions from the room
Moderator: Mr. Jacek Bańka – Radio Krakow
Participants:
– Wojciech Kozak –Deputy Marshal of the Malopolska Region,
– Marzena Wodzińska – Member of the Board of the Wielkopolska Region,
– Representative of the Ministry of Development,
– Blanka Romanowska – Head of the Department of Planning and Reporting and Environmental Policy, the Marshal’s Office of the Silesian Region,
– Maciej Zathey – Director of the Institute for Territorial Development in Wroclaw,
– Marcin Podgórski – Director of the Department of Waste Management and Integrated and Water Authorities, the Marshal’s Office of the Mazowieckie Region,
– Andrzej Guła – President of the Krakow Smog Alert.

1:40 pm-2:00 pm Coffee break

2:00 pm-3:00 pm Solutions for the improvement of air quality at the municipality level with respect to the anti-smog resolution, moderated discussion panel with experts and opinions from the room
Moderator: Mr. Jacek Bańka – Radio Krakow
Participants:
– Witold Śmiałek – Advisor to the Mayor of Cracow for Air Quality,
– Mateusz Klinowski – Mayor of Wadowice,
– Wiktor Łukaszczyk – Deputy Mayor of the City of Zakopane,
– Marta Wieciech-Kumięga – Director of the Department of Environmental Protection, Municipal Office of Nowy Sącz,
– Marek Kaczanowski – Director of the Department of Environmental Protection, Tarnow City Office.

3:00 pm-3:30 pm Lunch

For organizational reasons, please confirm your participation in the conference by e-mail: ewa.dabrowska@umwm.pl

Consultations concerning the draft Air Quality Plan for the Malopolska Region

4:00 pm-4:15 pm an update draft of the Air Quality Plan for the Malopolska Region – Aneta Lochno – ATMOTERM SA

4:15 pm-4:25 pm Opinion on the draft updating the Air Quality Plan for the Malopolska Region – Anna Majchrzak – NILU Poland

4:25 pm-5:30 pm Speeches and discussions as part of the consultation of the draft Air Quality Plan for the Malopolska Region

The testing carried out by the Krakow Smog Alert within the implementation of the integrated LIFE project “Implementation of the Air Quality Plan for the Malopolska Region – Malopolska in a healthy atmosphere” indicates that only one fifth of the single-family buildings in the Malopolska Region is heated with sources that do not adversely affect air quality.

Coal and wood are used to heat over 400 000 single-family houses. As many as 60% of houses (300 000 households) have boilers that can burn everything, including poor quality coal or rubbish. What is more, more than 50% of these boilers are old devices – 12 years and over. Devices of this type are called “smokers” just because of the smoke that gets out of them and the huge amount of pollution that they release in use.

Such a state of affairs makes the residential sector the main source of particulate matter and benzo(a)pyrene pollution in our region. Emissions from low chimneys (mainly houses) account for 57% of PM10 emissions in our Region, 69% of PM2.5 emissions and over 90% of benzo(a)pyrene emissions.

27% of the Malopolska Region houses (142 000) do not have any external thermal insulation. In the houses, the heat energy, instead of heating the space, escapes through the non-insulated walls.

Most owners of single-family houses (77%) do not currently think about replacing boilers. This means that without the regulation and financial support programs in the coming years there will be no significant progress in the elimination of smog sources.

Report on the technical condition of single-family houses in the Malopolska Region