Poland will reduce its carbon emissions through new technologies rather than by cutting output of polluting coal, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday.
Poland relies on coal to produce more than 90 percent of its electricity and is home to the European installation that emits the most carbon dioxide - utility PGE's lignite power plant in Belchatow.
"We will develop renewable sources of energy, but coal, lignite coal and also shale gas are key. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions will be through technologies and not through limiting coal output," Tusk told a conference.
Tusk's words come just two months before Poland hosts U.N. talks on slowing climate change.
During the climate conference, which will take place on November 11-22 in Warsaw, Poland hopes to agree on steps toward a new climate deal to be agreed in 2015 in Paris.
Poland, which hosted a U.N. climate meeting in Poznan in 2008, has led opposition to EU plans to temporarily some carbon pollution permits in order to raise carbon prices.
The country argues it has still managed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 30 percent as part of the Kyoto Protocol compared to 1990.
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