The climate summit, which ended on 18 December, did not bring a breakthrough in the climatic policy. COP15 ended in the Copenhagen agreement, which has not been signed by all 193 participants. The Copenhagen agreement, however not a legally binding document accepted by the parties to the Climate Convention pursuant to the United Nation’s rules, is to pave the way for a future legal agreement on climate protection under the Convention. It also assumes voluntary climatic policy.
For Poland, lack of new obligations towards the EU is good news, for status quo will be preserved. The European Union will not increase its CO2 abatement commitments soon, giving Poland more time to restructure its economy. In accordance with Deputy Minister for the Environment, Bernard Błaszczyk, EU faces a challenge of adopting its CO2 emission abatement strategy to the world’s reality.
The United States are planning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by no more than 4% compared to 1990 (17% compared to 2005) and emphasize that the country is not ready to bear excessive climatic commitments at the expense of economic growth, whereas China’s policy from the very start of the negotiations allowed only for voluntary actions.
A year ago the European Union adopted a very ambitious carbon dioxide reduction target, by 20% by year 2020, with outlook to increase it to 30%. Alas, there are no hints that other countries are willing to adopt make similar commitments. The EU did not prove the rightness of its climate and energy policy; therefore no amendments thereto are to be expected soon. Poland’s purpose for the year to come is to fight to maintain the CO2 abatement target at 20% by 2020, what would give us more time to adapt the industry to implementation of the climate and energy package. It turned out during the Copenhagen summit that Poland may count on support from the Central and Eastern Europe countries as well as Italy. Poland will still try to keep its surplus CO2 emission allowances, which may expire after 2012 together with the expiry of Kyoto Protocol commitments. Although no agreement to this end has been reached in Copenhagen, the final agreement assumes that the Kyoto commitments will be extended. Pursuant to those commitments Poland has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 29% instead of the required 6%, acquiring surplus emission allowances for 500 mln tones of CO2, worth approximately 2 billion euro.
Source: Rzeczpospolita
back