One of Poland’s leading coal companies has become the first official sponsor of the UN climate talks, which start in the southern city of Katowice next week.
Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa (JSW), a majority state-owned corporation and the European Union’s largest producer of high-quality coking coal, has announced the partnership with COP24 in a statement on its website.
The Polish Environment minister later announced that several other coal-sector companies had been chosen to sponsor this year’s climate talks.
JSW said the partnership would guarantee “the company’s active participation in the event and the possibility of promoting pro-ecological changes in the mining sector”.
It added that through the partnership, the company will organise panel discussions to showcase the company’s environmental activities and will offer “solutions” that will allow the coal sector to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and use resources such as land and by-products more effectively.
Although some coal-friendly countries such as the US and Poland have been pushing the idea of “clean coal”, scientists from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have warned that the world needs to take “rapid and unprecedented measures” to move away from fossil fuels and halve its greenhouse gas emission in the next 12 years to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Daniel Ozon, president of JSW, said that the company was “honoured” to support the Polish Presidency of COP24 and hopes that the sponsorship will “contribute to the promotion of JSW as an environmental leader in the mining industry”.
He added: “We want this international forum to strengthen the image of the JSW Group as the largest producer of coking coal and coke, which are the necessary ingredients for steel production and modern development, including for low-carbon industry and the innovative…