Coal addiction tests Poland on U.N. climate goals

By Gabriela Baczynska

KONIN, Poland (Reuters) - Poland's addiction to high-polluting coal contrasts sharply with its hosting of U.N. talks on a global climate treaty to promote clean energy, but its government says it is doing its best to break the habit.

Some 11,000 delegates are in Poland's western city of Poznan for a December1-12 meeting which marks a halfway point in efforts to agree new climate goals in Copenhagen at the end of next year.

And the fact that one of Europe's biggest lignite opencast mines, the Konin mine, lies in moon-like scenery just some 60 kilometers (40 miles) from Poznan highlights Poland's public relations dilemma.

Poland depends on coal for around 95 percent of its rapidly growing electricity needs and much of that is lignite -- one of the most polluting forms of the fossil fuel. Warsaw is seeking exemptions from European Union plans to cut emissions.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that EU plans would drive some electricity power plants out of business. But he said Poland was committed to climate protection.

"We want to say and comfort all those who know and sense that this is a difficult challenge that we shall manage," he told delegates in Poznan in a welcoming speech.

Out at Konin, the outlook is not so bright.

"The climate is being destroyed here. And some 200 citizens and another 400 farmers were forced away from their homes and land to make way for those massive holes in the ground where the lignite if being dug out," said Magdalena Zowsik of Greenpeace.