The effects of climate change do not concern the distant future, it is already having an impact on our daily life. Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and ambitious measures aiming to increase energy efficiency are necessary, yet we have to adapt to the changes that are already happening today.
Prognoses for Poland
According to naukaoklimacie.pl, prognoses for Poland and CEE region forecast more frequent temperature extremes, higher precipitation intensity, resulting in more frequent floods, droughts and hurricanes of greater intensity. Moreover, as far as Poland is concerned, climate changes will have a negative impact on the water management, since Poland’s resources are relatively scarce.
Changes at every step
Infrastructure, cities and our houses built a dozen or several dozen years ago were not designed for such weather conditions. We will not modify them in a flash, but today already we have to include the climate perspective in new development plans and future investments, as well as in all renovation works taking place in already functioning facilities.
Air conditioning will probably become a basic part in buildings, in which it has not been installed so far, construction standards will be updated, and a higher flood risk will have to be taken into account while planning the urban space – from big investment projects to decisions on appropriate planting, which will lead to run-off water decrease and increased retention.
Significant changes will also take place in agriculture: the vegetation period will be extended, the crops will appear, but farmers will struggle with drought.
Energy
Climate change will affect every area of the energy sector: production, distribution and consumption.
Higher temperatures mean a lower demand for heat energy in winter and higher energy consumption in summer due to the cooling system installations.
Hurricanes, or even whirlwinds, incidental in our latitude up to this point, will occur much more frequently, breaking power lines and causing power cuts.
Successive relocation of energy networks underground is a good example of adapting infrastructure solutions to the new conditions. The National Plan on Energy and Climate for 2021 -2030 , draws attention to the need for the medium voltage network wiring, and assumes the creation of a network cabling plan in 2020 in order to be implemented by 2040.
Modern technologies
Global warming will certainly accelerate the development of renewable sources and modern technologies. For example, the Polish company Saule Technologies is developing an innovative technology and is preparing to produce photovoltaic panels from perovskites. In September 2020, the company signed an agreement with Columbus Energy , which will invest 10 million EUR in the further development of the first production line of flexible perovskite modules in the world. These flexible, lightweight and super thin solar modules can be mounted even on vertical facade elements.
We are already observing a growing interest in photovoltaics, which will certainly increase even more due to the development of new technologies facilitating the use of renewable energy sources.
Every aspect of our lives depends on the climate, changes do not always have to be negative, but in any case they require modification of the way we have been thinking and acting so far. Let’s change what we can change and adapt to what has already become a reality.