14 DAY TRIAL // French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Poland not to veto any proposed climate deals that may result from the European Union summit, which will end today in Gdansk, Poland. The problem with any deals is the fact that many of the newest EU members, states that were part of the Soviet Union, including Romania, Bulgaria and Poland, rely heavily on polluting coal to power up their economies, and the implementation of carbon caps throughout the Union will harm their economies even further in this time of crisis.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says that Western countries need to show increased support for the former Soviet satellites, as their economies are just starting to develop, and there's no way that these nations will be able to catch up to the rich ones over the next decades, if limitations on how much they can emit are set in place by 2020. Tusk also asked the EU to supply countries in this situation with adequate funding, to help them offset the damage that adhering to such a measure would imply.
"It's not a coincidence that today in Gdansk we will talk to the prime ministers of other EU states and to the EU president (Sarkozy) on how to show solidarity in sharing the burden of tackling climate change (...) because solidarity also means taking responsibility for the weaker," the Polish Prime Minister said.
Poland threatened to veto any EU climate proposals that would set carbon reducing goals before, at earliest, 2020. France proposed a plan that required countries in the Union to reduce their greenhouse gas emission levels by 20 percent and double their renewable energy productions in 11 years.
The energy plan also said that Western countries would have to start shutting down coal-powered electrical plants in 2013, while Eastern countries would have an extended deadline, by 2016. "This is one step in the right direction, but not enough. This is not enough time. It's hard to say what will be the outcome of the European summit," Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki told Reuters.