Climate Mitigation through Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Poland: Harnessing knowledge and experiences for climate-resilient cities (Climate NBS Polska)

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.

The project intended to increase awareness of NBS in Poland as a cost-effective urban climate mitigation and climate protection measure. It seeked 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. The project aimed 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 included an online course, training events across Poland and a study visit to Germany. The project also fostered the development of a Polish network of NBS experts and worked closely with a number of Polish cities, such as Poznan, Krakow, Wroclaw and Warsaw.

• More municipal expertise on nature-based solutions: Over 400 experts from 36 Polish municipalities systematically expanded their technical and practical knowledge on implementing nature-based solutions, including through seven training courses and a two-day study trip to Berlin. 
• Widely distributed and used guidelines: As part of the project, two guidelines, Catalogue of urban nature-based solutions and Policy instruments to promote urban nature-based solutions, were developed and distributed in over 4,000 copies to the 100 largest Polish municipalities, among others. The guidelines continue to be used in municipalities and academia.  
• Database for long-term knowledge transfer: A database of over 30 experts in nature-based solutions serves as a permanent resource for municipalities for the development and implementation of emission-reducing nature-based solutions. 
• Benefits for other projects: The project has led to further collaborations. For example, the knowledge gained and newly created networks have been used for the Horizon project INTERLACE.