Poland

Greenpeace protesters clashed with coal miners at a new opencast mine on Nov. 24 in an incident highlighting Poland's environmental dilemma on the eve of a major UN-led conference on climate change. The western Polish city of Poznan will be the venue for the Dec. 1-12 conference aimed at agreeing a new global climate package to replace the Kyoto protocol which expires in 2012. But Poland still relies on polluting coal for more than 90 percent of its growing energy needs. Along with other ex-communist European Union states, it opposes parts of an EU climate package forcing big cuts in carbon dioxide emissions. (Reuters)