‘Coal summit’ stokes trouble at climate talks

An art installation by Taiwanese artist Vincent JF Huang, an official delegate of Tuvalu islands for the UN Climate Change Conference COP19/CMP9, featuring the Wall Street bull in a green coat sitting on a sea turtle, in a horse carriage, in Warsaw. Huang aims to raise awareness on the climate crisis in the island of Tuvalu.

AFP/WarsawPoland defended yesterday a contested “coal summit” that will be staged in Warsaw next week alongside climate talks on curbing Earth-warming fossil fuels.The two-day conference is being organised by an industry group, the World Coal Association, with the “endorsement” of the economy ministry of Poland, the country hosting the UN talks.Environment activists are planning to picket the ministry when the meeting starts on Monday.Environment Minister Marcin Korolec, who chairs this year’s UN negotiations, said yesterday that the coal meeting was only one of a panoply of events taking place on the sidelines of the climate forum.“During those two weeks, we have a number of different meetings here,” he said. “This coal summit is organised in parallel, not in the framework of this conference. You have to take that into account.”The “summit” will bring together some of the world’s largest coal producers and consumers, policymakers, academics and observers to discuss the role of coal in the global economy, in the context of climate change.Poland is a major user of coal, a cheap and indigenous but highly polluting energy source.Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in September that “hard coal and lignite – and soon shale gas – will remain our principal energy sources. That’s where the future of the energy sector lies”.Korolec insisted yesterday that his country was a “leader” in the fight against climate-altering emissions.According to statistics from the International Energy Agency (IEA), Poland was the world’s ninth-biggest coal producer in 2012 with 144mn tonnes or 1.8% of the world total – compared to China’s 3.5bn tonnes (number one at 45.3%) and the United States 935mn tonnes (second highest with 11.9%).Poland was also the world’s 10th biggest producer of electricity from coal and peat with 141 terawatts in 2011 – 95% of its total electricity production. The country emitted 300mn tonnes of CO2 from fossil fuel combustion in 2011.