Challenges ahead before COP19 summit in Warsaw

Photo: sxc.hu

In November Poland will host the 19th annual session of the UN Conference of the Parties (COP19) during which ten thousand delegates from over 190 countries will try to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on reducing global carbon emissions.

Environmental groups have criticised the decision to hold the climate summit in the country which, they claim, has a poor record on climate change.

But, as deputy minister of the environment Beata Jaczewska told our reporter Danuta Isler, the biggest challange of the event is not to confirm whether the host country is able to negotiate compromises and seal deals. It is rather about finding a balance between protecting the environment and fueling global economic growth.

"We really have to make sure that the growing population all over the world on the one hand would be provided with food, water, decent living conditions and jobs, and on the other that we are not exploiting the Earth's natural resources too much," the minister said.