Poland set to block EU environment ambition

WARSAW/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Poland is poised to wield its veto on Friday at a Brussels meeting seeking accord on how to shift to a low carbon economy by 2050 and has written to fellow EU environment ministers, urging them to share its views.

The ministers of the 27-nation bloc are gathering for a regular council meeting, which will not set firm policy, but is scheduled to approve a 2050 road-map, laying out milestones for carbon reductions beyond a set of 2020 policy targets.

Two government sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Poland would veto the environment council conclusions.

The blocking would be of political, rather than legislative significance as the council conclusions do not have the force of EU policy.

"We cannot agree to anything that would directly or indirectly allow for higher emission reduction goals in the near future," one government source told Reuters.

Another also said Poland would definitely block the proposed text.

Other issues raised in the draft conclusions for Friday's meeting include the weakness of carbon prices on the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). They stop short, however, of the kind of clear call for intervention to support the market made in the European Parliament last month.

A copy of a letter seen by Reuters from Polish Environment Minister Marcin Korolec to his fellow environment ministers strongly objected to "radical proposals" to support the EU's carbon market, which has sunk to levels far below those needed to support low carbon investment.

"It would not only bring about grave political risks, but also undermine investor confidence in the stability of the EU climate legislation," Korolec wrote.

Poland, which relies on coal for more than 90 percent of its

electricity needs, has agitated against the EU's climate policies since it joined the bloc in 2004.

RESISTANCE TO HIGHER CARBON PRICE

It has said a higher carbon price could harm its economy and has sought to hold on to a huge surplus of Kyoto carbon permits, which Denmark, current holder of the EU presidency, and other nations have argued could undermine the environmental integrity of the Kyoto process.

As the previous holder of the six-month presidency last year, Poland began its tenure by blocking an attempt then to move beyond existing targets and agree to a 25 percent milestone.

At the end of its presidency, it was at the head of the EU delegation to climate change talks in South Africa, which managed to salvage the Kyoto process on curbing global warming.

Marcin's letter to his fellow ministers, dated March 6, said that after the EU's set of 2020 targets expire, the logical solution would be for all carbon cutting efforts to fall under the umbrella of the global United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Poland's view sets it on collision course with other EU members, most notably Denmark, which has set environmental ambition and stronger targets for the 27-member bloc at the heart of its presidency.

Environmental groups said they believed Poland was isolated and noted it had not managed to gather co-signatories from other east European nations, which have sided with it in the past.

Non-governmental group the Polish Climate Coalition said the views of the Polish leadership did not reflect the wider society and has written to Prime Minister Donald Tusk urging against a veto of Friday's council conclusions, which it said would be "a great political mistake."

"Studies show that over 90 percent of Poles recognize that climate change is caused by human activities," the open letter said.

While council conclusions are of political rather than of legislative significance, a low carbon road-map is only a guide to future policy, not policy itself.

Pro-environment politicians are nevertheless eager for Poland to come into the environment fold.

"Poland is a big country and may provide an excuse for others to follow it," said German Social Democrat member of the European Parliament Jo Leinen, former chair of the parliament's environment committee.

"I urge them to recognize the chances in this road map of moving towards a more competitive, low carbon economy."

(Editing by James Jukwey)