Poland was condemned for active blocking of unconditional rise of the EU emission reduction target from 20% to 30% and a statement of Minister Dowgielewicz who said: „In Copenhagen a sequence of events starts which - let us hope so - will end in Mexico, where we will have tools to evaluate possibility of increasing the EU reduction target from 20 to 30%[1]”.
„Poland should stop acting like Europe’s brake. EU decision on unconditional rise of the reduction target to 30% will significantly affect the outcome of the Copenhagen Conference. Minister’s statement shows that Polish politicians do not understand the dynamics of the climate negotiations process” - says Robert Cyglicki, director of Greenpeace Poland, a member of Climate Coalition.
The EU aspires to position of a climate leader and if it really wants to become one, it has to make more ambitious commitments for climate protection. Negotiations dynamics can be compared to the domino effect - other countries may follow the EU decision: Japan, Canada, Australia and first of all the U.S. If the EU does not increase its reduction target now there is a very small probability that other countries will do so.
„It is Copenhagen, not Mexico, where key decisions must be made. We cannot deceive the atmosphere and ask climate change to wait for Poland’s decision. It might be too late then” - Cyglicki adds.
Due to the economic crisis, the cost of reaching the 30% reduction target is currently comparable to the cost of reaching the 20% target calculated last year, Ed Milliband, British State Secretary for Energy and Climate admitted in reply to the Polish Minister’s statement. He was supported by other 6 EU member-states. Similar calculations were prepared by Ecofys [2] and the European Commission [3].
EU decision on unconditional increase of the reduction target to 30% should be made during the meeting of the European leaders held currently in Brussels.
[1] http://euobserver.com/19/29111
[2] http://www.ecofys.com/com/publications/documents/Serpec4pager.pdf
[3] http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2008:0781:FIN:PL:PDF

Additional information:
Robert Cyglicki, Anna Drążkiewicz