THE 14TH UN Climate Change Conference ended acrimoniously last night with environmental groups lining up to denounce the EU's "sell-out" on its pledge to make substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
Although delegates from 189 countries reached agreement on the establishment of a special fund to help poorer countries adapt to the consequences of climate change, the atmosphere was soured by the news from Brussels.
EU leaders signed off on a climate and energy package that included significant concessions to energy-intensive industries and power generators, particularly those burning coal - the most damaging in terms of CO2 emissions.
But Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the deal "sends a clear message . . . that difficult roadblocks can be overcome and resolved" on the way to next year's crucial Copenhagen climate summit.
Traditionally, the EU enjoyed a leadership role at UN climate talks since the first conference in 1995. But the deal agreed in Brussels, ostensibly intended to achieve a 20 per cent cut in emissions by 2020, painted Europe into the dark corner.
Karen Harris of the Climate Action Network said the package adopted by EU leaders - including Taoiseach Brian Cowen - was "full of exemptions for dirty industries", and she called on the European Parliament to reject the "worst parts of it".
Fine Gael MEP Avril Doyle, one of only two Irish parliamentarians in Poznan (the other being Ciarán Cuffe of the Green Party), confirmed that the terms of the controversial deal would require the parliament's approval under EU decision-making rules.
Friends of the Earth Ireland director Oisín Coghlan accused Mr Cowen of a "dereliction of duty" in allowing the European Council to "make a pig's ear" of the climate and energy package, in response to pressure from major polluters and other interests.
Paul Dunphy of Oxfam Ireland said the Brussels deal had "undermined the global fight against climate change" because it would allow Europe's biggest polluters to offset more than half of the target cut overseas by trading in carbon emission permits.
The Union of Concerned Scientists said the EU's preoccupation with its "internal dispute" over the terms of the climate and energy package meant that it was not able to provide leadership at the Poznan conference to ensure that real progress was made.
Stephanie Turnbull of Greenpeace International said the "usual suspects" - who she identified as Australia, Japan, Canada and New Zealand - were also trying to "wriggle out" of commitments they made at the Bali climate change conference last December.
Although Poznan was meant to be a "stock-taking" exercise on the way to the more critical Copenhagen conference next December, several paragraphs of the final text adopted by delegates last night were "cut and pasted" from the Bali declaration.
For environmental groups, the most frustrating aspect of the Poznan conference was that the EU and other developed country blocs had not responded more positively to proposals made by developing countries such as China, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.
Former US vice-president Al Gore was not alone in proposing that the only way to conclude a deal in Copenhagen to cut emissions and provide substantial aid to poorer countries would be for world leaders to meet at least once in 2009 for climate change talks.
