Poland's new conservative president on Tuesday refused to endorse an amendment to the United Nations' Kyoto carbon-cutting pact that would require the coal-dependent EU country to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Greenpeace Poland on Tuesday called the decision a "bad sign" a month ahead of the UN's landmark climate summit in Paris, saying it could delay the EU's compliance with further emissions reductions or even trigger a "stalemate on decision-making" in the 28-member bloc.
But President Andrzej Duda said more analysis of the measure was required.
"Binding Poland to an international agreement affecting the economy and with associated social costs should be preceded by a detailed analysis of the legal and economic impact," he said in a statement Tuesday.
"These effects have not been sufficiently explained during the course of legislative work," Duda added, explaining his refusal to back the measure.
In line with the Kyoto pact, which entered into force in 2005, the European Union agreed to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels.
Duda's move came just two days after his conservative allies in the Law and Justice (PiS) party won parliamentary elections.
The party has vowed to protect Poland's loss-generating state-owned coal sector.
The country of 38 million, which is enjoying steady economic growth, gets around 90 percent of its electricity from burning coal.
Experts say Poland's outgoing parliament would need a three-fifths majority to overturn the presidential veto.
The move comes ahead of the November 30-December 11 UN conference in Paris, which aims to seal a landmark climate-rescue deal after more than two decades of fraught negotiations.
Poland’s new conservative president on Tuesday refused to endorse an amendment to the United Nations’ Kyoto carbon-cutting pact that would require the coal-dependent EU country to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Greenpeace Poland on Tuesday called the decision a “bad sign” a month ahead of the UN’s landmark climate summit in Paris, saying it could delay the EU’s compliance with further emissions reductions or even trigger a “stalemate on decision-making” in the 28-member bloc.
But President Andrzej Duda said more analysis of the measure was required.
“Binding Poland to an international agreement affecting the economy and with associated social costs should be preceded by a detailed analysis of the legal and economic impact,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
“These effects have not been sufficiently explained during the course of legislative work,” Duda added, explaining his refusal to back the measure.
In line with the Kyoto pact, which entered into force in 2005, the European Union agreed to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels.
Duda’s move came just two days after his conservative allies in the Law and Justice (PiS) party won parliamentary elections.
The party has vowed to protect Poland’s loss-generating state-owned coal sector.
The country of 38 million, which is enjoying steady economic growth, gets around 90 percent of its electricity from burning coal.
Experts say Poland’s outgoing parliament would need a three-fifths majority to overturn the presidential veto.
The move comes ahead of the November 30-December 11 UN conference in Paris, which aims to seal a landmark climate-rescue deal after more than two decades of fraught negotiations.
