Délcio Rodrigues and Silvia Dias, Vitae Civilis
After the first week of the negotiations, the second week of COP 19 started with the feeling of a dejá vu. Once again, the Filipino negotiator was the responsible for the most exciting speech. Again, Germanwatch disclosed that poor countries are most vulnerable to extreme weather events. Again, we have an extreme climate causing chaos for thousands of people while the conference happens (this time in the US). Again, we hear an announcement that the planet is experiencing the warmest years in its recent history, the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are already at alarming levels, and the right thing to do would be to leave fossil fuel reserves untouched.
Even the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report comes with a taste of old news. For despite the greater range of detail and scientific certainty, the first instalment of the Fifth Assessment Report (Working Group I) in essence confirms that we are on the path to dangerous climate change. Likewise, the International Energy Agency (IEA) confirms what has been argued by a strong campaign against fossil fuel subsidies created at COP 18. According to the IEA, governments spent $523 billion on fossil fuel subsidies in 2011 – a complete reversal of priorities from the point of view of climate change: for every $1 in support for renewables, another $6 are spent promoting carbon-intensive combustibles. Research by the Overseas Development Institute, UK, showed that subsidies to fossil fuel consumption in 11 OECD countries reach the total of $72 billion, or about $112 per adult inhabitant of these countries. But this is not only a problem in rich countries, fossil fuel subsidies are also present in emerging and developing countries, such as the Brazilian government’s tax-breaks for its national fuel-giant Petrobras.
In other words, a consistent schedule of work and recommitment to existing goals over the coming year is the best result we can expect from a conference that is likely to go down in history as coal’s COP.
Daniele Saguto, Youth Press Agency, Italy
If you look through the windows on the south side of the National Stadium in Warsaw you can see the chimneys of a coal plant. It is the entrance to the power plant ‘Siekierki’. It has been the property of PGNiG, a state-owned Polish Company, since 2012 and its CO2 emissions reach about 3.2 million tonnes per year.
Most of Poland’s energy demand is supplied by coal power, and, in 2012, Poland was the ninth largest coal producer in the world.
So, it is both obvious and ironic that yesterday the International Coal and Climate Summit (ICCS) took place just a few kilometers away from COP 19, where discussions on how to reduce the negative effects of global warming goes on. Speeches by the Prime Minister of Poland, Janusz Piechociński, and the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, Christiana Figueres, opened the meeting. The Prime Minister provided a strong message on the Polish Government’s position in both the COP 19 and ICCS negotiations, one that was supportive of a coal-based energy independence policy.
This position does not take into account the views of Polish citizens. A recent survey showed that more than 70 per cent of Poles want to see government investment in renewable energy and more than 80 per cent of the population considers climate change a serious problem which the government should address.
Despite this, the Polish Government, together with ‘The World Coal Association’ has subscribed to the ‘Warsaw Communiqué’, which supports the view that climate change can be tackled while continuing to burn coal, through the use of low emissions technologies.
As some representatives of WWF underlined during a press conference, the reality is different from the one presented during the ICCS: coal is not a cheap resource, it comes with a horrifyingly huge cost to people and the environment; it is fuelling climate change, and exacerbating its impact; the concept of ‘clean coal’ is just a myth, a desperate attempt by this industry to survive. These views were also expressed in an open letter from Greenpeace and others to Christiana Figueres.
While lobbyists from around the world were perched within the Polish Ministry of Economy, outside in the street various groups organised a demonstration. Among these were members of the campaign ‘Cough4Coal’, whose protest centred around two seven foot inflatable lungs and representatives from ‘people before Coal’, who protested to highlight that the health costs related to the use of coal in Poland alone amount to over 8 billion Euros and cause about 3,000 premature deaths each year. Greenpeace activists also made a dramatic protest by climbing onto the roof of the Ministry of Economy and unfurling a banner that read: ‘who governs Poland? Coal industries or the people?’ – Outreach magazine
