ZEROEMISSSIONS KRAKÓW

Zeroemission Kraków and other projects in the field of climate neutrality are carried out by the Department of Municipal Economy and Climate

The ambition of the “Zeroemission Krakow” portfolio of projects is to connect all Krakow projects in the field of climate neutrality into one big system. Working with the portfolio is working with the most important city climate projects at the same time. One of the most important initiative for the moment is taking part in European Mission 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030. It may not give direct money for implementation, but can change the way we think and accelerate the transformation a lot.

About project portfolio:

Krakow is a local government that has introduced a Project Management System in its Municipal Office in 2016, for better realization of its activities. Some city initiatives (budget tasks), in accordance with the Project Management System, are projects and are subject to special implementation rules.

Krakow undertakes various activities in the field of climate neutrality, including actions related to climate education, implementing investments that favor the city's adaptation to climate change, creating standards for a "green building" along with energy standards, using blue-green solutions, cooperating with Krakow non-governmental organizations and with the Krakow research and academic center and by participating in many European initiatives, exchanging good practices with other cities. All these activities carried out by both the departments of the municipality and municipal units and municipal companies go beyond the "project" scheme specified in the Project Management System.

Due to the systemic nature of the work conducted on climate issues, Krakow had to radically update its internal system of task management to enable itself to be able to carry out the portfolio of work being undertaken. Finally, Kraków ended year 2021 with Portfolio Management System, as a totally new part of Project Management System and two portfolios, Zeroemission Krakow portfolio, the very first one, and Smart City portfolio. Portfolios were created to ensure projects and programs align with the city strategy. The creation and maintenance of the "Zeroemission Krakow" Portfolio appeared to be best approach for the implementation of the city strategic objectives. Project portfolio management is a coordinated set of processes and strategic decisions that enable effective implementation of changes while maintaining the stable functioning of the organization. The primary task of portfolio management is to assess and properly use the organization's capabilities and capabilities to achieve strategic goals.

The Department of Municipal Economy and Climate in Krakow Municipality is directly responsible for realization of Krakow Development Strategy in the area of climate neutrality.

The Department of Municipal Economy and Climate serves as controlling and supervising unit for other departments, city units and city companies. Besides being supervisor for other units, the department is conducting climate activities on its own.

Those include:

Kraków is part of the Climate-KIC community, which is based on innovation and knowledge and brings together various types of actors (including in particular: business, scientific and research institutes, universities, municipal and regional governments, NGOs) from all over the world working together for climate protection and mitigation. Our membership in the Climate-KIC community has given us access to grants, original programmes and projects exclusively for Climate-KIC partners, for example the "Krakow - Healthy, Clean Cities" project, which is funded by the EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology). Through this project, Krakow has joined the most ambitious European cities: Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Malmö, Milan, Leuven or Orléans, which thrive to achieve zero emissions as early as 2030.

We are taking part in the Atelier project, which aims to create a vision of Krakow as a climate-neutral city and to create a place for citizens, informal groups, energy communities and urban activists and experts to work together. The Atelier project aims to showcase innovative solutions implemented in the Amsterdam and Bilbao that, by integrating smart mobility and technology into buildings, allow them to produce more energy than they consume themselves. Eight European cities, including Krakow, are using successful solutions and implementing them in their city.

We’re running the information and education campaign "Kraków in a good climate". Its aim is to present the negative effects of climate change in an accessible way, to educate residents and to shape and consolidate pro-climate attitudes. An important element is also to make residents and business representatives aware of their role in the process of combating climate change. The campaign is divided into four stages, each of which will be devoted to a different topic, these will be: Waste Management, Urban Greening, Water Efficiency, Energy Efficiency, Urban Mobility and Air Quality. As part of the campaign we are running:

- an educational Facebook profile ''Krakow in a good climate'', which aims to promote climate action by helping residents understand how to prevent climate change,

- an information and education workshop on healthy eating for primary school children. The aim of the workshop is to encourage children to change their eating habits and develop attitudes to prevent food waste,

- a tree-planting campaign in Krakow schools, led by our climate and environment advisers. As part of the campaign this autumn, they visited 14 Krakow schools and handed over 54 trees for them to plant,

- Krakow Climate Academy, a project aimed at secondary school children. The initiative combines environmental knowledge with the screening of the best environmental films of recent years. As part of the Academy, three meetings were held under the titles Green Lies, Water: the new gold, Slaves of Consumption and on 7 December in Krakow the last of the films, The Future of Nutrition,

- The Great Ecology Lesson, which aims to show citizens what activities for the climate, environment and air quality are carried out by municipal entities and companies, the scientific community and other public and private entities, as well as representatives of the authority,

- The realisation of four spots, showing the fate of a three-generation family, which draws the attention of Cracovians to change their daily habits through a positive impact on the climate and environment.

Especially satisfying is the change in the model of social participation. In 2021 the first Krakow Climate Assembly on climate change and the city's climate neutrality was organised. As part of the citizens' assembly, citizens, with the help of experts, developed 32 recommendations for the public administration in socially relevant areas. The panel aimed to provide answers to the question of how authorities and citizens can reduce energy consumption and increase the use of renewable energy.

Another success is a participation in the aforementioned EU Mission "100 Climate Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030". In cooperation with the city halls of Wrocław, Warsaw, Rzeszów and Łódź, Kraków prepared a proposal in the Mission's pilot project competition. Our city decided to cooperate because we believe that even the most innovative and ambitious actions taken individually are not enough to accelerate the green transition and achieve climate neutrality. The aim of our collaboration is to develop tools for systemic change in the functioning of cities to achieve climate neutrality by 2030.

The cross-cutting barriers that are most critical in Krakow's journey towards climate neutrality by 2030 are:

- Conservative national policy, resulting from the exceptionally strong dependence of the energy sector on fossil fuels, primarily coal, and the limited possibilities of connecting RES to the distribution network, the need to ensure the country's energy security with unstable RES. So far, Poland has no set date for achieving climate neutrality. The consequence are legal restrictions and financial priorities for the central energy sector.

- Limited competences of the self-government, many sectors are regulated by national regulations, e.g. for buildings or oil-fired energy.

- Distributed responsibility for building management, which makes it difficult to modernize them.

- The scarcity of investment blended financing models for the private sector.

- The lack of legal power to invest in private property.

- Limited financial possibilities of the local government

- Insufficient potential to generate enough renewable energy within City borders.

What is needed for successful adaptation of projects? Simply - overcoming the obstacles, described above.

Climate issues should be an integral part of city strategic documents. And it should be actively realized on all levels of administration.

In the Krakow city management structure functions the Deputy Mayor for Sustainable Development. Also, the Department of Strategy, Planning and Monitoring of Investments that supervises the implementation of the main strategic goals. Climate issues are within the competence of the Department of Municipal Economy and Climate, within which there is a 15-person team dealing with climate adaptation and mitigation. For the implementation of horizontal activities, a procedure for managing the portfolio for Zero-Emission Kraków portfolio and Smart City portfolio has been implemented. An inter-departmental team has been established, with the advisory function of the Portfolio Council, composed of representatives of stakeholders: the scientific community, business, and social organizations.

We are now in the process of preparation of the Krakow Climate Strategy, document presenting a plan to achieve climate neutrality, assuming at least a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2018, at least 80% emission reduction by 2040 and achieving climate neutrality no later than 2050.

We also want to include climate issues into the development strategy for Krakow "This is where I want to live. Krakow 2030".  It is the basic and most important document in the process of planning the future of our city until 2030. It covers the most important issues for the city's development policy and guarantees the coherence of management. Despite the fact that the current strategy is a relatively new document - it was adopted by the City Council on February 7th, 2018, Krakow has started work on updating it. Research conducted at the beginning of this year showed the need to supplement the document with goals and activities corresponding to the latest challenges facing Krakow today.