Water management in cities is a critical factor for sustainable growth and development. Satisfying the current needs with respect for the future is not possible without properly managed water and wastewater systems. An essential element of wastewater systems is the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The nexus between wastewater treatments and energy demand is a well-known problem. In times of energy crisis, effective energy management in this critical infrastructure is a key task. The purpose of this article is to analyze WWTPs’ energy consumption with regard to proposed management strategies for managers, designers and decision makers. A detailed analysis of WWTP operational parameters and a proposal of improvement actions will be useful for applicability and benchmarking studies. Estimating the carbon footprint (CF) of selected WWTPs considering the indirect emissions due to energy consumption is an important step for developing energy neutrality of WWTPs. Due to the desire to deepen research in the area of a complex phenomenon, which is the energy management system in WWTPs, the research undertaken herein is based on the case study method of three water and sewage companies operating southwestern Poland. Each urban area has different specificities, natural conditions and needs. The presented results of the analyses may be the basis for developing directions for changes in national policy, other benchmarking studies, and improving the energy management system in WWTPs.

The type of acquired food products is a derivative of various factors which depend both on economic aspects and consumer awareness. The purpose of this article is to present possible scenarios of changes in Polish agricultural products consumption structure in 2030 which may be due to increased consumer awareness and a transition to a more sustainable consumption. Suggested scenarios took into account both the supply side of Polish agricultural consumer products and the demand for such products. This study is based on data retrieved from FAOSTAT and Poland’s Central Statistical Office. We demonstrated that domestic agricultural production is capable of supplying Poland’s population with a sufficient amount of high-energy food products and proteins. Moreover, suggested scenarios anticipating reduced consumption of selected types of meat and cereals should not cause energy or protein deficiency. Total available energy (kcal/cap/day) in a scenario with reduced intake of selected animal and plant products (+/−75% scenario) could be 4141 while maintaining a balanced proportion of energy derived from protein (14.5%), animal proteins (48%) and an increase in the share of energy from plant production.

In line with the assumptions of the European Green Deal, it is planned to allocate 25% of agricultural land to organic farming by 2030. However, the question arises: what share of organic farming and under what additional conditions is it able to feed the population of a given country? The aim of the article is to try to answer the above question for the example of Poland. In particular, the authors analyze: the problem of satisfying people’s nutritional needs, reducing food wastage, and finally the relationship between sustainable consumption and increasing the share of organic farming in Poland. Attention was also paid to possible potential changes in the agricultural land area with the growing share of organic farming. The proposed scenarios for the transition to organic farming concern the year 2030. We propose to increase the share in 20%, 40% and 60%, imposing them on changes in sustainable consumption of +/−25%, +/−50% and +/−75%. The available FAOSTAT (Statistic Data of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and Statistics Poland data from 2008–2018 were used for the analysis. The model scenario analysis showed that the total food demand will be met in most of the scenarios. It has also been shown that with a higher level of transition to organic farming, it becomes necessary to reduce food wastage. Changing the consumption style not only creates opportunities for a wider development of organic farming in Poland but can also generate free areas on arable land (e.g., even more than 26% of free area in the +/−75% scenario). This may create potential opportunities for their use in the production of consumer crops, but also in the protection of the natural and agricultural environment.

The research carried out describes the provision of COVID-19 funding in individual EU Member States under the ongoing operational programmes of the EU financial perspective in the period 2014–2020. This was followed by identification of the most important areas of support and the amounts allocated to them for Poland and its sixteen voivodeships under the available EU funds from the 2014–2020 perspective. Types and forms of support for health services from the funds of the Regional Operational Programme for the Opolskie Voivodeship 2014–2020 (ROP WO) were analysed in detail. The obtained results showed that Italy, Spain, and Poland provided the largest values of support under the available operational programmes from 2014–2020 to combat the effects of COVID-19. In Poland, funding was mainly provided by the European Regional Development Fund, with the dominant support allocated to entrepreneurship and health care. In the Opolskie voivodeship, which is the case study, the additional financing in the health area concerns: personal protective equipment, equipment, construction works, oxygen installations, and waste water management. In this article, a literature analysis of the issue was conducted prior to the research process, which included theories of post-2007 crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus is on the theoretical background and research showing the impact of crises from the point of view of social, economic, and ecological dimensions, i.e., from the point of view of sustainable development. It also presents planned and implemented public intervention to offset the negative effects of COVID-19 in 2020 from structural funds in EU countries, including Poland and its 16 voivodeships.

The differences in the investment, cost, energy efficiency of cultivation in organic and conventional systems are considerable. This paper reports the results of emergy analysis and comparison of cost and energy efficiency of the two systems based on the example of growing winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The differences between the two systems include the total cost of production as well as various levels of economic efficiency of production in a conventional system. It was noted that the cost of conventional production is decided on by the large cost of production materials. These farms demonstrate considerably lower energy efficiency of production. In contrast, in organic farms we can observe lower yield levels associated with the more extensive production quality. However, in the considerations we needs to take into account how the two types of production affect the natural environment. For this reason, emergy analysis was taken up, as its results indicate lower energy use in ecological cultivation.

The paper presents the results of measurements and calculations concerning the influence of weather conditions on the operation of wet cooling towers of 905 MWe units of the Opole Power Plant (Poland). The research concerned the influence of temperature and relative humidity of air, wind and power unit load on the water temperature at the outlet from the cooling tower, the level of water cooling, cooling efficiency and cooling water losses. In the cooling water loss, the evaporation loss stream and the drift loss stream were distinguished. In the analyzed operating conditions of the power unit, for example, an increase in $T_{amb}$ air by 5 °C (from $20–22°\mathrm{C}$ to $25–27°\mathrm{C}$) causes an increase in temperature at the outlet of the cooling tower by $3–4°\mathrm{C}$. The influence of air temperature and humidity on the level of water cooling $\mathsf{\Delta }{T}_w$ and cooling efficiency $\epsilon$ were also found. In the case of $\mathsf{\Delta }{T}_w$, the effect is in the order of $0.1–0.2°\mathrm{C}$ and results from the change in cooling water temperature and the heat exchange in the condenser. The ε value is influenced by air temperature and humidity, which determine the wet bulb temperature value. Within the range of power changes of the unit from $400$ to $900\mathrm{MWe}$, the evaporated water stream ${\dot{m}}_{ev}$, depending on the environmental conditions, increases from $400–600\mathrm{tons}/\mathrm{h}$ to the value of $1000–1400\mathrm{tons}/\mathrm{h}$. It was determined that in the case of the average power of the unit at the level of $576.6\mathrm{MWe}$, the average values of the evaporation and drift streams were respectively $0.78\%$ and $0.15\%$ of the cooling water stream. Using statistical methods, it was found that the influence of wind on the level of water cooling, cooling efficiency and cooling water losses was statistically significant.