At a Glance

The U.N.'s 24th Conference of the Parties is sponsored by Polish coal companies.The conference features a display of coal and attendees were greeted by a coal miners band.Poland PresidentAndrzej Duda refuses to abandon coal and says the fossil fuel "does not contradict the protection of the climate."

Attendees of important climate talks underway this week inKatowice, Poland,seem to be dumbfounded at the host country's unabashed commitment to coal, a "dirty" fuel sourceknown as one of the main contributors to global warming.

From sponsorship by coal companies to a literal display of coal at the conference to Poland PresidentAndrzej Duda's refusal to abandon coal, the attention to the fossil fuel source seems to have ruffled the feathers of experts and world leaders whoare committed to reducing dangerous greenhouse gas emissions.

Sriram Madhusoodanan, deputy campaigns director at thenon-governmental organization Corporate Accountability, said last week that theclimate talks "bankrolled by Big Coal ," DeSmogBlog reported.

"Such sponsorship raises serious questions about what access and influence sponsorship buys and could risk calling into question the legitimacy of these talks before they even begin," he added. "Big polluters have no place bankrolling or participating in theUNclimatetalks."

The two-week, 24th Conference of the Parties, known as COP24, opened on Sundayin Katowice, a city of nearly 300,000 locatedin southern Poland's coal region of Silesia.

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Despite Poland's claim that it is committed to makingSilesia greener in the future, it recently approved the opening of yet another coal plant in the region next year,Deputy Energy Minister Grzegorz Tobiszowskiannounced last week, the Associated Press reported.

In hison Monday, Duda told conference attendees, who were greeted by a coal miner band upon arrival, that coal “does not contradict the protection of the climate and the progress of climate protection.”

Jean Su, energy director of the Climate Law Institute and an attendee of the conference, noted in a Monday tweet that Duda's comments "perfectly sums up our fundamental problem at the . World leaders claim climate leadership but fail to stop burning fossil fuels."

Poland has an abundance of coal and supplies 80 percent of its energy needs with the fossil fuel, the AP reports.A plan by Tobiszowskiwill reportedly reduce the use of coal in Poland's energy mixto under 30 percent in 2040when the country's first nuclear power plant is expected to become a significant energy provider.

The consensus of climate experts, however, isthat Poland's plan will be insufficient and will come far too late.

A dire report releasedearlier this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changesays coal use must by 2050 tolimit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial levels, a target set by the 2015 Paris Accord. Another report by the U.N. released last week said meeting the is an "impossible" task.

The U.N. report concludedthat even if the nations of the world live up to their current commitments, global temperatures will increase 3.2 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial levels by the turnof the century.

"That’s a number that would be catastrophic – and fatal for many small island states and coastal areas," Joyce Msuya, acting executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said in the report. "The fact is that we are already seeing climate change play out in front of us. From the Caribbean superstorms to droughts in the Horn of Africa, or record temperatures and wildfires, our planet is already changing."

The topic of reducing coal in Poland is a controversial topic among residents in the region.

Leszek Jaworowski Jr.,the son of a coal miner and an electrics salesman, decided to abandon the family's coal-mining legacyand chose a different career path from his father.

"Coal mines should be shut, Silesia doesn't need them anymore,"Jaworowski Jr. told the AP. "They're destroying the region, the air and the people. The heaps of money pumped into maintaining them should be better used for creating jobs in innovative and clean industries like IT."

Others in the region who rely on the coal industry for their livelihoodthinkcoal is a "treasure."

"If there was no coal there would be no jobs," 43-year-old Tomasz Mlynarczyk said. "If we close the mines, then everything around goes bankrupt — shops and other firms that produce and deliver goods to the mines."

The conference is being touted as Paris Climate Accord 2.0 asworld leaders, scientists and activists from around the world gather to negotiate the implementation of the landmark accord.

The goal of the conference is for the 200 countries committed to the agreementto create a so-called Paris rulebook, which will determinehow countries will be required to count their greenhouse gas emissions, report them to the rest of the world and reveal what they are doing to reduce them.

In his opening speech Monday at the conference,U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said all countries must act now to reduce fossil fuels or face catastrophic consequences.

“Even as we witness devastating climate impacts causing havoc across the world, we are still not doing enough, nor moving fast enough, to prevent irreversible and catastrophic climate disruption,” Guterres said, adding thatclimate change is "the most important issue we face."