Climate talks begin in Polish coal city Katowice

REUTERS, 02nd DECEMBER, 2018- Delegates from nearly 200 nations on Sunday began two weeks of talks to tackle deep political divisions at the most important U.N. meeting on global warming since the landmark 2015 Paris deal to shift away from fossil fuels.

Expectations are low that negotiations in Katowice, at the heart of Poland’s coal region, will be sufficient to address concerns laid out in reports over recent weeks on the severity of rising greenhouse gas emissions.

The political climate has also been transformed since the Paris agreement and the fragile global unity that brought about that accord has shattered. Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama declared the U.N. conference open on Sunday and handed over the presidency of the talks to Michal Kurtyka, Poland’s deputy environment minister.