UN conference in Poland a 'big step' on climate change: PM

Thousands of decision makers from around the world flocked to the southern Polish city of Katowice for the conference, which aimed to adopt a roadmap for putting into practice the 2015 Paris agreement amid efforts to slow climate change.

Negotiators late on Saturday adopted a final declaration after almost two weeks of debate.

“This is a big step towards protecting the natural environment. It was also important to show Polish efforts to limit a negative impact on the environment,” Morawiecki told the PAP news agency on Monday.

He added: “In the 1980s Poland emitted around 500 million tonnes of CO2 annually. Today it’s about 300 million tonnes. That’s still a lot, but the pace of the reduction is record-breaking, even on a global scale.”

‘Huge success’

Poland’s Environment Minister Henryk Kowalczyk told public broadcaster TVP Info on Sunday evening that the unanimous adoption of an agreement known as the Katowice Rulebook was a “huge success.”

The United Nations’ COP24 gathering – formally the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – was originally scheduled to end on Friday. It was extended to Saturday to enable delegates to finish work on their key declaration.

Speaking at the official opening of the summit on December 3, Poland's President Andrzej Duda said his country was "ready to take its share of responsibility for international security," including in terms of climate policy.

Morawiecki told international leaders a day later that his country was among nations leading the way in efforts to stop global warming.

(pk/gs)

Source: PAP