Webinar: The role of local strategic heat planning to accelerate Poland’s heating transition

The building’s sector accounts for 38 % of the total energy consumed in Poland and 33 % of energy-related emissions and makes up a large share of fossil fuels imports. Russia’s war in Ukraine and the energy crisis have been a stark reminder of the high costs of fossil fuel dependencies for several reasons, as they make us less secure, contributes to climate change and environmental damage, and drives up costs for taxpayers and end consumers in order to keep homes warm. Decarbonising heat and the buildings sector through the uptake of clean, local and renewable sources and energy efficiency gains is therefore of paramount importance to enhance energy security and resilience, cut emissions, alleviate energy poverty, and improve public health. 

Local strategic heat planning, as defined in Article 25 of the recently finalised Recast Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), offers a great opportunity to accelerate this transition. It is a key tool to understand in detail the local challenges, specificities, and potentials for the heat transition. This greatly facilitates efforts to identify and deploy appropriate and tailored solutions for modernized and more efficient (district) heating systems, infrastructures, and buildings, to boost the uptake of renewable energy sources, and to reduce the demand for fossil and solid heating sources. Local strategic heat planning can therefore emerge as a key tool for reaching national climate, environment, and energy goals more effectively, and make our living environments more climate-proof and resilient. Unlocking the potential of local heat planning will require that local authorities have the appropriate resources, capacities, and tools at hand. For this, new regulation, strengthened multi-level coordination and support frameworks will be needed.  

This online event, organized by KAPE, Forum Energii and Energy Cities, brings together key EU, national and local stakeholders working with the heat transition in Poland and beyond to discuss the role and potential for local strategic heat planning to accelerate Poland’s heating transition. In light of the Recast Energy Efficiency Directive (EU EED), the update of the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) and the publication of Forum Energii’s new Strategy of the Heat Sector, it will highlight current challenges and shed light on good practices to take inspiration and build further upon.

Discussions will more concretely revolve around: 

• How current regulations can be amended, and practices changed to put EU EED Article 25 (6) into practice  
• How multi-level coordination and alignment of heat and energy planning can be strengthened 
• How local authorities best can be supported to overcome current capacity constraints and to develop their plans and implement their measures, and how appropriate and targeted support mechanisms at the regional, national and EU level best can be developed 

Find the agenda here!

Register here to take part of this important discussion on the role and potential of local strategic heat planning in Poland.

Please note that this event will be simultaneously interpreted in Polish and English.