"Polish Government Chokes on Coal"

"Warsaw tries to figure out how to save jobs as coal spirals towards bankruptcy."

"The Paris climate agreement underscoring that the era of fossil fuel is drawing to an end spells trouble for Poland, which is adamant that its economy will continue to be largely powered by coal far into the future.

The Polish government is already struggling to save the ailing coal industry, which is being hammered by high costs and a plunging world price that has the sector hemorrhaging red ink.

The Paris summit was in some ways a success for Warsaw, which helped strike the term “decarbonization” from the long-term goals. Instead, the climate deal calls for a “balance” between carbon dioxide emitted by human society and CO2 that is naturally absorbed, which for Environment Minister Jan Szyszko means it can make up for some emissions by planting lots of trees."

Helena O'Rourke-Potocki reports for Politico December 28, 2015.