The issue of sustainable development in culture has gained greater importance in Polish cultural policy after 2023, especially in the context of infrastructure investments, climate policy and energy transformation. Although culture is still rarely treated as a fully autonomous pillar of sustainable development at the national strategic level, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage increasingly links cultural policy with questions of accessibility, territorial cohesion, environmental responsibility and energy efficiency.
The document Poland 2030, Third Wave of Modernity: The ‘Long-term National Development Strategy contains, admittedly, provisions on “strengthening the role of civic, cultural and media education, economic education and education for sustainable development in school, and stimulating cooperation between schools and external institutions, for example entrepreneurs, local government, culture institutions or NGO’s. Both the increase in employment and, once the macroeconomic conditions have been sorted out, economic growth and modernisation of the entire economy are the most important levers of Polish development, both in the long-term perspective until 2030 and in the medium term – until 2020”.
However, attempts to implement the provisions of the Agenda 21 for Culture are visible mainly in regional and local development programmes, and this is mostly at the level of large and medium-sized cities. Strategies in the field of culture are mainly executive documents for the activities of cultural institutions and support for local creators and artists, and rarely locate culture as the fourth pillar of sustainable local development. Regardless of public legal solutions, there are many grassroots initiatives taken by cultural institutions or non-governmental organisations aimed at implementing sustainable development goals by 2030.
These include, for example, the following:
- Poland’s first carbon calculator, which makes it possible to estimate the impact of cultural institutions or events and compensate for the carbon footprint through offsets activities;
- The establishment of the Green Events standard;
- The creation of the Code of Responsible Festivals – organisers of festivals and events created a document promoting responsible relations with the environment, festival community and neighbours;
- Environmental declaration of the Coalition of Summer Literary Festivals;
- “Exchange waste for cultural excursions” – a nationwide campaign to exchange waste for tickets to cultural institutions.
After 2023, sustainable development objectives became more visible in public investment programmes addressed to the cultural sector. The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage reported significant infrastructure allocations through the European Funds for Infrastructure, Climate and Environment programme (FEnIKS) and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (KPO). These investments include the modernisation of cultural infrastructure, improvement of energy efficiency in public cultural institutions, accessibility measures for people with disabilities and support for local cultural centres in smaller towns and rural areas. Sustainable development in culture is therefore increasingly connected with climate adaptation, reduction of energy consumption, territorial inclusion and equal access to cultural services.
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