Climate Mitigation through Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Poland: Harnessing knowledge and experiences for climate-resilient cities (Climate NBS Polska)
The project’s goal is to create multiple opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Polish cities. The aim is to increase the understanding, acceptance and uptake of multifunctional nature-based solutions (NBS) as a climate mitigation measure among a range of stakeholder groups and across numerous cities in Poland.
Project
The project hopes to increase awareness of NBS in Poland as a cost-effective urban climate mitigation and climate protection measure. It seeks to build capacity, knowledge and skills among city officials, municipal staff and landscape planners to enable the conceptual and technical design and implementation of NBS. Working with a partner project led by the Polish think-tank Sendzimir Foundation (SF), this project aims to achieve its goals by (i) creating a catalogue of urban NBS; (ii) offering guidance and policy recommendations to promote urban NBS; and by (iii) setting up a targeted capacity-building programme for the project’s end-users. It will include an online course, training events across Poland and a study visit to Germany. The project will also foster the development of a Polish network of NBS experts and work closely with a number of Polish cities, such as Poznan, Krakow, Wroclaw and Warsaw.
Nature-based solutions provide an integrated approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation in urban areas, while simultaneously offering a range of additional benefits.. Stockholm @Tommie Hansen – Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).
Background
Many Polish cities are undergoing intense development, which is placing investment pressure on undeveloped land. Individual sites would be able to deliver on urban climate change mitigation and reduce GHG emissions, with the resulting social, economic and environmental benefits, by optimising existing green spaces and deploying NBS to develop new multifunctional natural areas and features. However, Polish cities are currently facing several barriers to the development and implementation of NBS as a cost-effective climate mitigation measure, including a lack of relevant experience and technical knowledge, and a shortage of context-specific policy instruments.
Success Stories
Climate-friendly by nature
Following the invitation of EUKI project “Nature-based Solutions (NBS) Poland”, Polish landscape planners, engineers and local government experts visited Berlin’s most creative applications of NBS in August 2020. These range from a university building with a nature-based air conditioning system to Rummelsburger Bucht, Berlin’s “Sponge City”. Impressed by the possibilities, the Polish guests dedicated a session at the international conference “Blue and Green Infrastructure for Urban Climate Change Mitigation 2020” to adopting some of these solutions in Polish cities.
Project information
Updated: September 2019
Countries: Germany, Poland
Project duration: 10/18 - 11/20
Funding: 271,437 €
Target groups: Cities, towns and municipalities, Civil Society, Educational institutions, Regional governments, Research Institutes
Implementing organisation: Ecologic Institute
Project Partners:
Sendzimir Foundation
Project Website:
ecologic.eu/
Contact Persons
Mrs Sandra Naumann
Organisation: Ecologic Institute
Email: sandra.naumann∂ecologic.eu
Mrs Ewa Iwaszuk
Organisation: Ecologic Institute
Email: ewa.iwaszuk∂ecologic.eu
EUKI
The European Climate Initiative (EUKI):
This project is part of the European Climate Initiative (EUKI). EUKI is a project financing instrument by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). The EUKI competition for project ideas is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. It is the overarching goal of the EUKI to foster climate cooperation within the European Union (EU) in order to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
For more information on the EUKI: www.euki.de