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Wawrzynowicz i Wspólnicy was a partner for this year’s edition of the National Scientific Conference on Real Estate Law: The COVID-19 pandemic and the future of the real estate market.

The conference was divided into three thematic panels: “The influence of the epidemiological state on short-term and commercial rental”; “The functioning of the real estate market in the light of selected regulations related to counteracting COVID-19”; “COVID-19 and the development of new methods of real estate brokerage.”

As part of the second panel, a lecture entitled, “Energy efficiency and the decarbonisation of buildings – new regulatory challenges” was delivered by Adam Wawrzynowicz, managing partner at Wawrzynowicz i Wspólnicy.

The conference took place on April 28, 2021, and as many as 380 participants took part in it.

The March issue of ‘Przegląd Gazniczy’ included an article by Adam Wawrzynowicz and Tomasz Brzeziński on the latest legislative changes for the gas industry at the EU level. The article presents the solutions proposed in the so-called Hydrogen and Gas Markets Decarbonisation Package – a set of regulations providing for the revision of two key legal acts for the gas sector, i.e. Regulation (EC) No 715/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of July 13, 2009 on the conditions for access to natural gas transmission networks and repealing the regulation ( EC) No 1775/2005 and Directive 2009/73 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas and repealing Directive 2003/55 / EC. The article also highlights the planned changes aimed at facilitating the development of the hydrogen market and the expansion of the infrastructure dedicated to it.

The December issue of ‘Przegląd Gazniczy’ contained an article by Adam Wawrzynowicz on green alternatives to natural gas. The text is based on the observations of the experts who took part in the SESSION II panel “The future of gas industry – biomethane” during the 7th Congress of the Polish Gas Industry.

Biomethane is considered to be a green alternative to natural gas as it is classed as a decarbonised gas, and the production of biogas and biomethane has a great potential to reduce uncontrolled methane emissions from waste disposal. Poland can offer great development opportunities for the biogas industry, especially because of the possibility of achieving the National Index Target with the use of biomethane and, in addition, because of the EU policy aimed at introducing renewable gases into gas networks.

In his speech, the representative of the W&W law firm raised the issue of natural gas as a transformative fuel on the Polish road to a low-emission economy. W&W’s portal ‘Energia.edu.pl’ was privileged to be the media sponsors of the event.

The theme of this year’s edition was the European Green Deal in Poland.

During the two days of debates, the focus of discussion was on topics considered to be a challenge for the coming years, including the implementation of offshore wind energy, Polish decarbonization, the future of green hydrogen, the development of distributed energy, the role of gas as a bridge fuel for energy transformation, and financing mechanisms for investments aimed at achieving climate neutrality.

The participants of the panel in which Adam Wawrzynowicz spoke also included: Jerzy Kwieciński (President of PGNIG SA), Artur Zawartko (Vice President of Gaz-System SA), Ireneusz Krupa (President of PSG), Piotr Zawistowski (President of TGE), Antoni Bielewicz (Director of the European Climate Foundation in Poland).

Adam Wawrzynowicz and Tomasz Brzeziński co-authored an article entitled “The current state of the initiatives taken at the EU level to increase the EU climate target for 2030 and implement the European Green Deal.” It was published in the September issue of Przegląd Gazniczy No. 3 (67).

On March 4, 2020, the European Commission, acting in line with the principles of the European Green Deal, adopted a legislative proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework to achieve climate neutrality and amending Regulation (EU) 2018/2019 (European Climate Law) . The regulation provides for an assessment of the EU’s 2030 climate target in terms of its consistency with the 2050 climate neutrality target. As a result of the assessment, the Commission will develop a plan to increase the EU’s 2030 reduction target.

Achieving climate neutrality requires coordinated action across all EU policy areas. The article deals with the most important, from the perspective of the gas industry, initiatives on how to achieve increased the climate goals in the energy sector as recently published by the European Commission. Among the most important for the transformation of the gas sector are the strategies for methane and hydrogen, for energy systems integration, and for the revision of the provisions of the Energy Taxation Directive and the RED II Directive.