2022-11-08 12:39 update: 2022-11-15, 13:00
Adrzej Duda. Photo PAP/Radek Pietruszka
Russia’s war against Ukraine poses a threat to climate goals, the Polish president warned the COP27 climate conference on Tuesday.
Andrzej Duda also told the event in Egypt that pressure must be maintained on Russia and that greater efforts need to be made to ensure independence from Russian fossil fuels.
Delivering a speech to the summit's plenary session, Duda said energy transformation was currently much harder due to "Russia's criminal aggression against Ukraine, which has led to huge losses in human life, to the destruction of Ukraine's infrastructure and economy, but also to environmental losses.
"The consequence of Russia's aggression is primarily a crisis, but it has also created huge costs that threaten the timely attainment of climate goals and... threaten the situation in which we would really like to meet our goals in line with our predictions," Duda told the event in Sharm el-Sheikh.
"Taking the above into account, I believe we should respond in a definite way, first of all by caring for our fellow citizens, for our nations, we should care about individual energy consumers," the president said. "Moreover, we must do everything in our power to stop Russia's aggression against Ukraine in a rapid and definite way through our increased support of Ukraine.
"We must exert pressure on Russia, simultaneously increasing our actions to be independent of Russian fossil fuels," Duda said. "Today, we really need solidarity, much more now than ever in history. At the same time, we must work out innovative solutions that will ensure and guarantee energy security and climate protection." (PAP)
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