Extreme weather is also placing a growing burden on Poland, including it’s agri- and horticulture , with droughts, heatwaves, heavy rainfall and floods generating average annual losses of around EUR 1.39 billion and crop yields sometimes dropping with double digits. Over a period of less than two decades, the direct damage associated with such events has reached approximately EUR 26.66 billion, with impacts extending to farmers and the natural environment. The Polish government has plans to address the challenges. At the same time there are opportunities for Dutch expertise, technology and plant products to become part of the solution. Fifty-one Dutch horticultural companies already found their way to the 33 edition of the Green is Life Trade Fair in Warsaw, in March 2027 Dutch companies can be present at the Dutch Pavilion of the AGROTECH Trade Fair in Kielce, Poland.
Beeld: © Photo by Iván Tamás / Pixabay
The impact on production
In 2013, the Polish Council of Ministers adopted the Strategic Adaptation Plan for sectors and areas vulnerable to climate change to 2020, with a perspective to 2030, the country’s first strategic document focused directly on adapting to climate change. According to the Polish Ministry of Climate and Environment, the plan assessed both observed and projected climate changes in Poland and identified extreme weather events as one of the main risks to society and the economy. These included intense rainfall, floods, local flooding, heatwaves, droughts, hurricanes and landslides. The projections indicated that such events could become more frequent and more intense, while affecting increasingly large parts of the country.
The Ministry also reports that Poland’s average annual temperature has increased by approximately 2°C since 1951. More recently, March 2026 was the third-warmest and third-driest March in Poland since 1951. The average temperature reached 6.4°C, which was 3.3°C above the long-term norm, while precipitation amounted to only 29% of the norm.
The impact of these pressures is already visible in agricultural production. According to Statistics Poland’s preliminary 2026 estimates, field vegetable production is expected to reach around 3.9 million tonnes, 4.5% less than in the previous year. The harvest of fruit from trees is estimated at approximately 3.4 million tonnes, 18.6% lower than last year, while fruit production from fruit bushes and berry plantations is preliminarily estimated at around 458,000 tonnes, 6.5% lower than the 2025 harvest. The scale of the declines illustrates how vulnerable plant production can be to difficult growing conditions.
Beeld: © Photo by Monika Bleszyńska
GREEN IS LIFE: plants for urban climate adaptation
Higher temperatures and heatwaves can make densely built-up areas significantly hotter than surrounding areas. Large areas of concrete and asphalt limit rainwater infiltration, while heavy rainfall can place pressure on drainage systems and increase the risk of local flooding.
Urban greenery can help address several of these challenges simultaneously. Trees provide shade and can contribute to cooling the urban environment. Vegetation and healthy soils can help retain and infiltrate rainwater. Green spaces can support biodiversity, improve public spaces and provide residents with places for recreation and social interaction.
The result is a broader understanding of what urban greenery can do: it can help manage water, reduce heat, support biodiversity and improve the quality of public spaces at the same time. For cities facing increasingly unpredictable weather, this makes plants part of the climate-adaptation toolkit rather than simply an aesthetic element.
The annual Varsovian horticultural trade fair, GREEN IS LIFE , with the Dutch Embassy giving patronage, provided a practical answer to question which plants are best suited to today’s urban conditions? As part of Module II: Trees in the City, the fair programme featured a presentation of the List of 500 Tree Species for Urban Areas, Recommended by the Polish Nurserymen Association, presented by Grzegorz Falkowski of the Polish Nurserymen’s Association.
The Dutch Embassy also contributed as a content partner to the Green City conference – “Plants at the Center” . The conference addressed the role of plants in creating climate-resilient, biodiverse and liveable cities. Among the speakers was Dutch Liveable Cities Ambassador Paul Weidema, who presented “From Vision to Reality: Practical Steps Toward Greening the City of Alkmaar.” His presentation drew on Alkmaar’s practical experience with urban greening and climate adaptation, showing how broader ambitions can be translated into changes in streets and public spaces.
The Dutch presence at the event was also substantial, with 38 Dutch exhibiting companies and a group of 13 Dutch companies visiting the fair as part of a market study programme co-organised with Royal Flora Holland.
How Poland is adapting?
Poland’s government response to climate change is being implemented through a combination of strategies, programmes and projects at national, regional and local levels. Key elements include:
- Strategic Adaptation Plan to 2020 with a perspective to 2030 (SPA2020) - Poland’s first nationwide adaptation document, identifying sectors particularly vulnerable to climate change, including water management, agriculture, forestry, health, energy, construction and transport. The Ministry of Climate and Environment is currently working on a new National Adaptation Strategy (KSA) to 2040.
- National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) 2021-2030 - a framework covering both climate mitigation and adaptation measures, including actions aimed at preventing drought, strengthening flood protection and developing systems for monitoring climate-related risks.
- State Ecological Policy 2030 (PEP2030) - Poland’s strategic environmental policy, with climate mitigation and adaptation among its key objectives. It aims to strengthen the resilience of the environment, the economy and society toclimate-related risks.
- Regional Adaptation Plans (RPA) - strategies developed by Poland’s regions to increase their resilience to the impacts of climate change, based on climate-risk assessments and climate scenarios. The Śląskie, Małopolskie and Dolnośląskie regions were the first to develop their own regional adaptation strategies. RPAs use climate-risk analyses from the Klimada 3.0 project and provide a basis forspatial and investment planning at regional level.
- Urban Adaptation Plans for cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants - strategic documents developed for Poland’s largest cities to assess their vulnerability to climate change and plan measures to increase resilience to climate risks and extreme weather events. Plans have been prepared for more than 40 of the country’s largest cities and include, among other things, risk assessments, green-blue infrastructure investments and educational projects.
- Urban Adaptation Plans for cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants - strategic documents designed to help cities identify local climate risks and plan measures to strengthen urban resilience. Cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants are required to adopt their Urban Adaptation Plans by 2 January 2028. The obligation was introduced by the Act of 27 November 2024 amending the Environmental Protection Law and certain other acts, which entered into force on 11 January 2025.
Nature protection
The role of urban greenery also connects climate adaptation with the wider protection of nature and biodiversity. Under Poland’s Nature Conservation Act, the country recognises 10 forms of nature protection, including national parks, nature reserves, landscape parks, protected landscape areas, Natura 2000 sites, nature monuments, geological documentation sites, ecological sites, landscape-nature complexes and species protection. Each form serves a different purpose and is associated with a different protection regime.
One of the most important elements of this system is Natura 2000, the European ecological network introduced in Poland in 2004 following the country’s accession to the European Union. Natura 2000 is designed to protect habitats and species considered particularly valuable or threatened at European level and to maintain biodiversity across the EU. Importantly, Natura 2000 does not necessarily mean that human activity is excluded. The system is designed to combine nature conservation with the continued use of land, provided that activities do not adversely affect the habitats and species for which a site has been designated.
For horticulture and landscape professionals, this broader approach to nature protection is increasingly relevant. Planting schemes, restoration projects and urban green infrastructure need to take account not only of climate resilience, but also of biodiversity, habitats and ecological connectivity.
Beeld: © Photo by Coralie Meurice / Unsplash
Opportunities for the Netherlands
Poland is under climate pressure, but it is also responding with investment, innovation and a growing ambition to make cities greener.
Although, Poland has a substantial domestic horticultural sector, for the Netherlands, this presents ample opportunities for cooperation. Dutch and Polish horticulture already have strong commercial links, but the relationship is increasingly moving beyond the traditional trade in flowers and plants. As Poland invests in greener cities, climate mitigation and climate adaptation, there is growing potential for Dutch agri and horticultural expertise and technology. For this reason, the Dutch Embassy is preparing presence of Dutch companies at the Dutch Pavilion of the AGROTECH Trade Fair in Kielce, Poland, in March 2027. The theme of this pavilion will be Climate Resilient Agriculture.
More information
The Netherlands Agricultural Network team at the Dutch Embassy stands ready to help any Dutch company interested in doing business with Poland.
For more information about this topic, please contact: war-lvvn@minbuza.nl.