Delegates at U.N. climate talks in the Polish city of Katowice point to the mining museum next to the conference venue as the proper place for coal, which provides 80 percent of the country’s electricity. Poland’s decision to host the negotiations to revive the 2015 Paris agreement on phasing out fossil fuel has laid bare the tension between high-minded goals and business realities. A short drive from the conference venue, at the Silesian region’s dozen or so remaining mines, tonnes of freshly dug coal thunder down shoots to be rail-roaded to power plants for carbon-intensive generation. Coal bosses see a need to address climate risk, but say Poland must use thermal coal for electricity until it has a better option. Silesia also produces coking coal, used in steel, and viewed as a strategic mineral even by the European Union, which seeks to be an environmental […]