UN Climate Conference: Host city residents looking to create cleaner environment

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02:11

Now to this year's UN Climate Conference, where world leaders are trying to figure out how to slow global warming. For years, the Polish host city's coal industries have polluted the air, but CGTN's Stefan de Vries reports people there are trying to save the environment for future generations.

Katowice is the capital of the coal mining industry in Poland. Its hardly breathable air causes a lot of health issues.

PATRYK BIALAS CLIMATE ACTIVIST "It means that every people in Katowice inhale from one thousand seven hundred up to 2500 cigarettes a year."

So not the most logical place to host this year's Climate Conference, you would think. But the city is working hard to become greener.

MARCIN KRUPA MAYOR OF KATOWICE "Coal is going to be present for some time, but we are considering clean ways of using it if we have to use it."

Coal is crucial to Poland's economy. Many jobs depend on it. In Communist times, coal miners were very privileged. But those times have long gone.

PRZEMYSLAW CIENCIALA COAL MINER "To be honest, it's tough to be a miner today, because it's not what it used to be. There is a lot of pressure from the EU to reduce carbon dioxide emissions."

STEFAN DE VRIES KATOWICE, POLAND "To transform the economy from fossil fuels to renewable energy requires a lot of investments, so that's a choice that's not particularly popular with politicians. And it's, therefore, the citizens who take the most initiatives to make their region cleaner."

PATRYK BIALAS CLIMATE ACTIVIST "Citizens are doing much more than the local government. We are training children in kindergarten, primary and secondary schools. Because in my opinion children are the best advocates of clean air and climate policy."

A view shared by the host city's mayor.

MARCIN KRUPA MAYOR OF KATOWICE "We cannot look at here and now. We have to look towards the future because what we are doing today will serve future generations."

STEFAN DE VRIES KATOWICE, POLAND "The Poles sometimes describe coal as a dying man. But he still has a very long life ahead. This is Stefan de Vries, in Katowice, Poland for CGTN."