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A company from Poland might just know how to improve air quality in cities. Green stops are to clean the air we breathe in while waiting for a tram or bus to arrive. The first stops are to be constructed within three months after an investor is found. Each year, air pollution brings death to several million people.

High energy costs, heating and air conditioning charges are tangible problems for both enterprises and local governments. They often lack funds for investments to increase the energy efficiency of the buildings they use. An alternative solution is investments based on the ESCO formula, where the whole cost and risk are incurred by the company implementing the project. In Poland the value of the market is estimated at EUR 27 m and is constantly growing, as increasingly more emphasis is placed on the significance of energy efficiency for the development of the economy and the competitiveness of enterprises.

Globally, there are nearly 5 billion tonnes of plastic waste left unused. A partial solution to the problem could come in the form of a plastic-to-fuel technology. Plastic waste can become a source of fuel as effective as petrol and diesel fuel. A unique technology for its conversion has been developed by a Polish company. As required by a draft EU Directive, large-scale recipients will now have to use biofuels as well, which includes fuels made from plastic.

Energy poverty, which affects up to 4.6 m people in Poland, the problem of smog in towns and cities, cyber-security of power plants and the digitisation of the power industry as a whole – these are only some of the challenges that can be addressed through energy sector innovation. Start-ups provide completely new solutions and perceive business in an entirely different way compared to traditional, conservative energy businesses.

The Act on Electromobility adopted in January doesn’t cover hybrid cars, which are increasingly popular on the Polish market. It also excludes plug-in hybrids, which allow switching the drive to electric, from accessing clean transport zones. No other country in Europe has ever introduced such strict regulations. Europe’s biggest cities such as Berlin and London initially allowed access to their clean zones for low-emission vehicles, and the criteria were gradually made more stringent.

In 2017, the sales of electric cars in Poland, including plug-in hybrid cars, slightly exceeded 1000 vehicles, compared to several thousand sold in Norway or Germany. Despite the incentives envisaged in the new legal act, and the dropping prices of electric cars, they will hardly become common elements of the Polish road landscape in the nearest years. The car-sharing trend is likely to catch on far more quickly, and may lead to a drop in the demand for car ownership by even 80 percent.

The consumers' growing awareness and new regulations contribute to the favourable situation in the waste management sector. Entrepreneurs positively assess the waste transport regulations which entered into force in late January, and the decision of the Minister of the Environment on levelling off the environmental fees for segregated and mixed waste storage. Provisions increasing corporate responsibility for produced waste will also contribute to market regulation.