DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, including Ireland, will all have to "put their cards on the table" next April and show how far they are prepared to go in combating climate change, according to EU environment commissioner Savros Dimas.
He was speaking to the press as ministers from more than 145 countries were making speeches at the high-level plenary session of the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan and EU leaders were meeting behind closed doors in Brussels.
Although Mr Dimas repeated his view that "the environmental integrity of the [EU's climate and energy] package will remain intact", with a target 20 per cent cut in emissions by 2020, environmentalists were outraged by rumoured compromises.
Stephan Singer, of the World Wildlife Fund, described what was happening there as "disgusting", particularly the suggestion that up to 70 per cent of carbon credits would be allocated free to electricity generators, instead of being auctioned. If this was the type of compromise being negotiated in Brussels, he said the EU would be "wrecking its leadership role on climate change and wrecking the whole process" of trying to reach a global agreement that would prevent dangerous climate change.
Despite the EU's longstanding commitment to contain the rise in average global surface temperatures at two degrees, Mr Singer said the world was "on a four-degree trajectory", with many coastal areas threatened.
An online opinion poll of more than 1,000 people each in Germany, Italy and Poland found support levels of 85 per cent, 87 per cent and 74 per cent respectively for the EU to secure a strong agreement to protect the climate, despite the economic downturn.
Mr Dimas said the EU was looking forward to engaging with Barack Obama after he takes office on January 20th. "When you hear Obama, you can see a big difference [to president George W Bush]", he added. Senator John Kerry, who stood against Mr Bush in 2004, appeared in Poznan yesterday and suggested that Mr Obama might host a climate change summit of world leaders.
Discussions in Poznan have focused on how to narrow differences ahead of the conference in Copenhagen next December and secure international agreement.
Minister for the Environment John Gormley signed an agreement in principle to invest €15 million in green energy projects in Poland; in return, Ireland would receive an estimated 1 million tonnes in carbon credits.
