Heat’s on climate indaba

Sizzling weather this summer will put pressure on almost 200 governments to reach a deal in Poland in December on the details of a global plan to limit climate change, the incoming president of the UN talks said.

Environment ministers will meet in Katowice, the heart of Poland’s coal-producing Silesia region, to agree on rules for the 2015 Paris climate accord.

That accord set a sweeping goal of ending the fossil-fuel era this century, but the text was vague on details.

Michal Kurtyka, formerly Poland’s deputy energy minister, who will preside at the December 3-14 talks, said: “Paris is empty without Katowice.”

Poland, which generates most of its electricity from coal, is hosting the annual UN climate talks for the third time.

“The Paris agreement includes certain principles.

“However, the way they will be implemented will be described in the Katowice package – so the more detailed and concrete it is, the better.”

Hot weather this summer that set off wildfires from California to Greece had made officials more determined to reach a detailed deal in Katowice, he said.

“I think this will increase political determination for the solutions to be as concrete and as detailed as possible,” Kurtyka said.