Warsaw has launched the development of its Green City and Climate Action Plan (GCCAP) today. The city will develop the plan as part of the EBRD Green Cities program, which in June welcomed Warsaw as the first Polish city to join the network.

The GCCAP is the first of its kind under the Bank’s flagship urban sustainability program. The EBRD is partnering with C40 – a globally leading organization promoting decarbonization and climate resilience in the world’s largest cities – to combine expertise to outline a low-carbon and climate resilience development pathway for Warsaw.

The GCCAP for Warsaw received donor funds from Poland’s Ministry of Finance and the TaiwanBusiness – EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund. Work on the plan will continue over the next year.

The launch event featured statements by Warsaw’s mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, the Head of the Taipei Representative Office in Poland, Ambassador Weber V.B. Shih, as well as representatives of EBRD, C40, and Arup, the consultancy supporting the development of the plan.

The €2-billion-plus EBRD Green Cities program helps each member city tailor solutions to its environmental needs with a unique combination of measures designed to move cities towards a lower-carbon and more liveable future. On joining the program, cities undertake a trigger project with EBRD finance and craft their own Green City Action Plan, or GCAP, setting out further actions.

As a trigger project for EBRD Green Cities, the city of Warsaw last week received an EBRD and ING loan of PLN 392.5 million (€87.2 million equivalent) to improve its metro system. The loan will co-finance the acquisition of up to 45 new railcars, part of a metro improvement operation which is the city’s single largest investment project to alleviate congestion. The project is part of a wider financing package from the EIB and the European Union.

(WBJ)