Political leaders arrive in Poland to attend climate change summit

Negotiators from around the world have opened the United Nations' annual climate change conference in Poland, three years after sealing a landmark deal in Paris that set a goal of keeping global warming well below 2C (3.6F).

Representatives of some of the most powerful countries and biggest polluters will be conspicuous by their absence as the United States has said it is leaving the U.N. process and China was not expected to send its top politicians.

To maximize the chances of success, technical talks began on Sunday, a day earlier than planned, with delegates from nearly 200 nations haggling over how to implement the broad promises of the Paris deal on moving away from fossil fuel.

The talks in Katowice have been billed as the most important U.N. conference since the landmark Paris accord as they precede an end-of-year deadline to agree a “rule book” on how to enforce action to limit global warming to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.

Expectations for the Polish talks are low: the atmosphere of political unity built in Paris has been shattered by a wave of populist governments that place national agendas before collective action.

While the Polish government claims Katowice is in the process of transforming into a green city, power plant chimneys pumped plumes of smoke and monitoring sites showed elevated levels of air pollution.

Poland plans to use Monday's official opening event to promote a declaration calling for a "just transition" for fossil fuel industries that face cuts and closures amid efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Delegates at the talks said the biggest issues were likely to include finance and the level of scrutiny associated with monitoring individual nations’ emissions.

Poland's deputy environment minister, Michal Kurtyka, who is chairing the conference, urged envoys from almost 200 nations to use the time between Sunday and December 14 to make progress on fleshing out the 2015 Paris agreement.

"We are here to enable the world to act together on climate change," he said. With further meetings next year meant to build on what's decided in Katowice, Kurtyka urged all countries to "show creativity and flexibility".

"The United Nations secretary-general is counting on us, all of us to deliver," he added. "There is no Plan B."

The World Bank Group said on Monday it is doubling funding for poor countries preparing for climate change to 200bn US dollars (€176bn) over five years.

The U.N. has a goal to raise $100 billion every year from 2020 for climate action.

Other attempts to inject urgency into the Polish talks will include an intervention from British broadcaster and environmentalist David Attenborough, as well as the roughly 25 heads of state and government who are attending the talks.