Stowarzyszenie Gmin Polska Sieć „Energie Cités”

PNEC News

Over 100 participants took part in the international conference „COVENANT OF MAYORS - European Initiative for Climate Protection” which took place in the building of Cracow City Council on 28^th and 29^th of May 2009. The conference gathered people which are interested in fighting against climate change at the local level.

The conference was organized by the Association of Municipalities Polish Network „Energie Cités” in cooperation with the Cracow City Council. It received the patronage of Maciej Nowicki, Minister of the Environment, and Jacek Majchrowski, President of Cracow.

The conference objective was to disseminate the concept of Covenant of Mayors and to encourage Polish municipalities to join the Covenant and contribute to the fight against climate change.

First ceremony of signing the Covenant of Mayors took place on the 10^th of February 2009 in Brussels and was part of the European Sustainable Energy Week. Mayors of the pioneering European cities which signed the Covenant committed themselves to take actions concerning local sustainable energy management and to go beyond the EU objective which is 20% reduction in CO₂ emission by the year 2020. The covenant was then formally signed by 364 European cities, including only 4 Polish cities: Bielsko-Biała, Łubianka, Niepołomice and Warsaw.

The conference was opened by Zbigniew Michniowski, President of PNEC Board and Deputy Mayor of Bielsko-Biała. After having finished his speech he gave the floor to Elżbieta Lęcznarowicz, Deputy Mayor of Cracow, Wojciech Kozak, Member of the Board of the Małopolskie Voivodeship and Maria Kłokocka from the Ministry of the Environment (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). During the conference, there were presented experiences of both Polish (Bielsko-Biała, Niepołomice, Warsaw) and European (Vaxjo, Heidelberg, Leicester, Delft/Zoetemeer, Tampere) cities, mayors of which have already signed the Covenant.

In the next session the role of city networks in climate protection was illustrated by: Tomasz Potkański, Association of Polish Cities, Radu Ionel Bolchis, OER - Orase Energie Romania Romanian Energy Cities Network, Anatolij Kopets, Ukrainian Energy Efficient Cities and Szymon Liszka, Polish Foundation for Energy Efficiency.

This year our Association celebrates its 15^th anniversary. That is why we asked the most active members of our network to present their achievements and history of their cooperation with PNEC. Achievements and experiences of following municipalities were presented: Cieszyn (speaker: Andrzej Wucki), Dzierżoniów (Zygmunt Kuc), Janów (Adam Markowski, the mayor), Nowa Dęba (Wiesław Ordon, the mayor), Ogrodzieniec (Piotr Mikulski) and Raciechowice (Marek Gabzdyl, the mayor).

Programme

Photo gallery:

Zbigniew Michniowski, President of PNEC Board and Deputy Mayor of Bielsko-Biała