I've just arrived in Warsaw for a round of climate finance meetings and talks alongside this year's UN Climate Negotiations (COP19); I'll be reporting. But the first thing I have to report is not about the Conference, but about the Host: the Polish Government.
The Host Government is meant to lead the negotiations. But unfortunately Poland would seem to be doing exactly the reverse. Apart from what's going on inside the negotiations (and remember Poland has been blocking tightening of the EU's emission targets), contemplate these:
- The Polish Govt's COP19 App greeting goes ... “Climate changes are natural phenomena, which occurred many times on Earth”. Maybe they missed the recent, rather definitive, IPCC report?
- They're holding a global coal summit in Warsaw alongside the COP, complete with its own “Warsaw Communique” modelled on the annual COP communiqué. Nice.
- This week they announced a huge ($3.7bn) coal-fired power station development. According to BusinessWeek says they are: "forcing the nation’s biggest utility to build a $3.7 billion coal plant" its CEO says will be unprofitable.
- And to add insult to injury, they invited 12 fossil fuel firms to sponsor the COP; their logos are all over the place. For example one of the lead adverts in the official COP magazine is for a coal-to-fuel company, telling people they can become "fuel-independent" by expanding use of what coal they have; not exactly addressing climate change.
It's very much the Crazy Polish Government not the people; one poll released this week showed a big majority of Poles want to pursue a clean energy future.
