Page 16 - bne_newspaper_December_07_2018

Central Europe
December 7, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
Poland to lead the world’s last-ditch effort to weaken climate change
Wojciech Kosc in Katowice, Poland
For two weeks, representatives of the world’s nearly 200 countries are meeting in the Polish mining town of Katowice for the United Nations’ annual climate change summit, the COP24.
The task ahead is daunting. It is to get everyone – from countries as diverse as Norway and Sudan, the US and Fiji – to agree how to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement, which set about to limit the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere to 1.5 degrees Celsius, relative to the pre-industrial era, by 2100.
The key to achieving that is reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from burning fossil fuels, mainly coal, in industries like energy. Released into the atmosphere, CO2 traps solar radiation coming off Earth in a process commonly known as greenhouse effect.
An interim goal is to achieve zero-net emissions – in other words stop increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere – by 2050.
Unfortunately for the negotiation process, cutting CO2 output is a major political issue. It has pitted the rich countries against the developing nations over the former’s historical responsibility for global warming.
The developing countries stand to suffer the most from the effects of the warming climate, such as extreme hurricanes in the Atlantic or the rising Pacific Ocean.
Representatives of the world’s nearly 200 countries discuss climate change in the Polish mining town of Katowice.
“Today I speak for the women in the Caribbean, for the fishermen in Kiribati,” the United Nations’ secre- tary general Antonio Guterres addressed the del- egates, gathered in the Katowice International Con- gress Centre built on the site of a former coal mine.
The Caribbean is routinely getting battered
by hurricanes made ever more potent by the warming climate. Pacific nations like Kiribati could disappear unless the rise in ocean levels – an effect of polar ice caps meltdown caused
by rising temperatures – is contained.
But there also is a local Polish dimension to the global climate talks. The coal-dependent country’s willingness to host the summit – for a record fourth time – is a travesty for many observers, suspecting Warsaw will want to use the summit to push the agenda of agreeing on burning coal with tackling climate change.
Poland has recently drawn criticism for announcing plans to stick to coal as the main source of energy until 2030. Making coal companies partners of the summit has also raised eyebrows.
Employing some 82,000 people, mining is still an important part of Poland’s industry and economy, even though it has been fading, as evidenced by falling employment and production.
Warsaw’s bespoke political agenda during COP24 is to have the participating countries sign up to a so-called “just transition,” or moving away from