Regional diversity of low-carbon investment support from EU funds in the 2014–2020 financial perspective based on the example of Polish municipalities

The main purpose of this study was to assess the level of and differences in regional support provided by municipalities for low-carbon investments in Poland in 2014–2020. The results of empirical studies allowed to answer the research question: in regions struggling with major environmental problems, are local government units actively seeking European Union funds for the development of a low-carbon economy? The research carried out, showed that the Silesian Voivodeship, which is the most urbanised and faces the greatest environmental problems, is characterized by the highest investment activity in terms of supporting the development of low-carbon economy co-financed from EU funds. Quantitative dependencies were also found between the level of local government's spendings on low-carbon investments and population density, the level of development quantified by Gross Domestic Product per capita, the number of national economy entities per 1000 inhabitants and the amount of own income per capita. Thus, higher investment activity of local governments in terms of developing a low-carbon economy distinguished regions with high demographic and economic potential; as a result, in case of local governments, this was true for those with a high level of the so-called “own income potential".