EU climate change agreement may fall apart

Both Italy and Poland, host nation for the climate change conference taking place in Poznan in December, are realising the economic and political costs of entering into emissions reductions schemes which, as has been said many times before, will achieve nothing. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was adamant:

"I have announced my intention to exercise my veto," the Italian leader Wednesday told a press conference on the sidelines of the summit.

"Our businesses are in absolutely no position at the moment to absorb the costs of the regulations that have been proposed," he said.

And Polish leaders were equally determined:

The foreign minister of Poland, heavily dependent on coal-fired power, said his country would resist attempts to railroad the targets through.

"This is a very intricate game and Poland is ready to introduce a veto if there will be attempts to force us to achieve an agreement on the climate package," Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters.

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