Katowice Summit To Hammer Out Rule Book To 2015 Paris Agreement

This year’s United Nations Climate Conference could be a landmark one for the global coal industry as well.

- Kingshuk Banerjee

While coal is a crucial energy mix for India and China, the world’s two leading energy spenders, the US on its part too is gearing up for the coal lobby. So after Paris, the centre of attention would be shifted to Katowice, the Polish coal town, in 2018.

The 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or COP24 would be held in Katowice in December. The pivotal 2018 UN climate conference would be held in the heart of Poland’s coal mining industry, in a move that has angered some campaigners but offered others hope that it symbolises transition away from fossil fuels.

The coal town of Katowice – founded on coal mining – is in the heart of the Upper Silesian coal basin and plays host to one of the European mining industry’s biggest trade fairs. Ironically, the choice of town was announced by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on the day US President Donald Trump was on the verge on quitting the Paris Climate agreement.

This year’s talks in Katowice are intended to hammer out a rule book to the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change, which set a sweeping goal of ending the fossil-fuel era in this century by spurring a trillion-dollar transition to cleaner energy sources such as solar and wind power. But the coal lobby is not that disheartened too. It perceives that Katowice could be a landmark in reviving the global coal sector as well.

As said one expert, “Quite frankly, the US is the only party to the convention that appears to be willing to push a rational discussion on the role of cleaner, more efficient fossil (fuels) and the role of civilian nuclear energy.”

Washington’s coal stance: more resolute