{"id":18761,"date":"2013-11-18T15:14:37","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T15:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/?p=312407"},"modified":"2013-11-18T15:14:37","modified_gmt":"2013-11-18T15:14:37","slug":"thousands-protest-outside-un-climate-talks-in-warsaw-demanding-climate-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/thousands-protest-outside-un-climate-talks-in-warsaw-demanding-climate-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands Protest Outside UN Climate Talks in Warsaw Demanding Climate Action"},"content":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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By Hoda Baraka<\/p>\n

This morning in Warsaw, Poland, climate activists staged a public action in front of the Polish Ministry of Economy—the venue for the greenwashing Coal and Climate Summit—to voice their outrage and reiterate a simple reality: there is no such thing as clean coal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Organizations involved in the action included Polish Youth Climate Network, CEE Bank Watch<\/a>, Corporate Europe Observatory<\/a>, Klima Allianz, 350.org<\/a>, Tools For Action, and the #Cough4Coal Initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Polish government, a long-standing opponent of renewable energy<\/a> and action on climate change<\/a>, has teamed-up with the World Coal Association (WCA), representing the most polluting corporations in the world, to host the International Coal and Climate Summit<\/a> taking place on the sidelines of the UN climate talks currently underway in Warsaw<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The conference is a desperate attempt by the coal industry to greenwash their industry—but thanks to the teamwork of activists from across Eastern Europe and around the world, coal is still a dirty word. Our movement’s demand is clear: an immediate phase out of all coal technologies and a shift of investments towards energy technologies that respect peoples’ health, the climate and environment. Dirty fuel sources like coal have no place in a twenty-first century clean energy economy.<\/p>\n

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The government and the WCA described the event in vague terms as giving the coal industry “a rare chance” to “be a key part of the climate debate”, a supposed “contribution” to the UN climate talks<\/a>. But the actual agenda of the coal conference is far less deceiving: promoting public subsidies to the dirty coal industry—and thus augment the $544 billion spent on subsidies to the fossil fuel industry<\/a> in 2012 alone. This summit makes a mockery of the UN climate treaty and of those working to combat climate change.<\/p>\n

But the summit also highlights how out of touch with reality the Polish government is as a growing anti-coal movement is quickly gaining momentum just this year, globally:<\/p>\n