THE IMPORTANCE OF GREEN INVESTMENTS IN IMPROVING THE COMPETITIVENESS OF MUNICIPALITIES IN POLAND

Purpose: The aim of the article is to present the relationship between environmental (so-called "green") investments and the change in the level of competitiveness of municipalities in Poland. The significance of green investments in improving the competitiveness of local governments at the municipal level was determined based on the division of the studied units into four groups: urban municipalities, urban-rural municipalities, rural municipalities and cities with county rights. The study was designed to verify the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the change in the level of competitiveness and the scope of environmental investments in municipalities in Poland, with the highest relationship being noted in cities with county rights. Methodology: The study presents changes in the level of competitiveness of municipalities based on 21 indicators and the scope of green investments in municipalities based on 10 indicators constructed based on public statistical data from the Local Data Bank of the Central Statistical Office. The selection of indicators was made using the Z. Hellwig reduction method – i.e. by isolating diagnostic features that showed little correlation between each other. The level of competitiveness and environmental investments were presented based on a synthetic measure showing the taxonomic distance of a given municipality from the established development pattern. In turn, the relationships between the studied variables were established based on regression analysis. Findings: As a result of the conducted research procedure, environmental investments and changes in the level of competitiveness of 2477 communes in Poland were presented, and the relationships between these variables were determined in the individual research groups. The most significant relationships were observed among cities with county rights and rural communes. In turn, the highest values of the synthetic index in the field of competitiveness were recorded in the case of urban-rural communes, and in the field of environmental investments - in the case of urban communes. Originality/value: The article presents the results of extensive research conducted on a group of 2477 entities based on 31 indicators that uniquely present the competitiveness and environmental orientation of investments in municipalities in Poland. The obtained results of the study may be a source of inspiration for EU institutions in the field of formulating environmental strategies covering the entire area of the European Union.