A letter sent from Austria’s EU council presidency to the Polish organisers on Friday, shared with Climate Home News, gives an indication of how the EU hopes to progress its agenda when diplomats arrive in the Silesian city of Katowice for the Cop24 meeting.

The bloc’s divisions with Poland on climate are well documented.

In a nutshell, Brussels wants to lead from the front, pushing all member states to make deeper carbon cuts. That was made clear on Wednesday by commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, who endorsed his climate commissioner’s recent call for increased targets. Poland has consistently resisted higher EU goals.

The letter details how the EU believes Poland and the current climate presidency Fiji should run a key event at the talks, the Talanoa Dialogue.

The EU wants the event to trigger governments to consider “enhancing climate action,” according to a negotiator for the bloc. Among other things, this will mean all governments drafting new climate targets.

“With the commission proposal for the EU [2050 climate strategy] coming forward before the Cop, the EU will be in a good position to do so,” said the negotiator.

Climate Home News spoke to the head of the Polish presidency Michał Kurtyka in Warsaw. He said discussions over the European 2050 target would be “very intense”.

“We look forward to this discussion with the hope that Europe will be able to speak with one voice at Katowice,” he said.

The Talanoa Dialogue “is the first political moment after the Paris Agreement in 2015 to take stock of progress towards the long term temperature goal of the agreement,” said the EU negotiator. “We think it is important for the credibility of the process to give the Talanoa Dialogue sufficient space at the Cop, to recognise the science and to capture the political momentum in a robust and forward looking way.”

In the letter, the heads of the EU’s climate delegation, Helmut Hojesky and Elina Bardram, rejected a suggestion from the Polish and Fijian organisers that countries be allowed to participate without sending a minister.

The event should be “at least at ministerial level, if not higher,” they wrote. To attract ministers, it must be “visible to the media and the general public.” They also suggested inviting the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres.

They said the event should contain a briefing on the UN’s special scientific report on the impacts of 1.5C of global warming, which is due to be finalised in October. The latest leaked draft said the difference between that and 2C, once seen as the “safe” warming threshold, was “substantial.”

At talks last week in Bangkok, the Fijians and Poles canvassed delegations for their thoughts on how the event should run. The EU followed up with the letter detailing their suggestions. The Polish presidency did not respond to questions regarding the EU’s letter. A Fijian spokesman said the input was a “normal part of the process.”

This story was originally published in Climate Home News.

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Malcolm Turnbull will be replaced by Scott Morrison, his treasurer, who defeated challenger Peter Dutton 45 votes to 40 for the leadership of the governing right-wing Liberal party.

One of the most dramatic weeks in Australia’s political history began with Turnbull’s admission that he could not pass his signature energy reform – the National Energy Guarantee (Neg). Rebels in his party, led by former prime minister and arch conservative Tony Abbott, had refused to back a policy that would have set – relatively weak – emissions targets for the power sector.

That led to a leadership challenge from Dutton on Tuesday, which narrowly failed. But Turnbull bled support throughout the week as ministers resigned across the government. He did not contest the vote on Friday.

In a valedictory press conference, Turnbull said his party, which governs in coalition with the Nationals, was unable to implement a climate change policy.

“I think the truth is that the coalition finds it very hard to get agreement on anything to do with emissions. The National Energy Guarantee is a vitally important piece of reform,” said Turnbull.

Turnbull said the opposition to action on climate change within his own party was an article of faith.

“Emissions issues and climate policy issues have the same problem within the coalition of bitterly entrenched views that are more ideological views than views based, as I say, on engineering and economics. It’s a bit like same-sex marriage used to be, almost an insoluble problem,” said Turnbull, who oversaw marriage reform this year despite strong internal opposition from the right.

“As for what the future holds in terms of energy policy, again you’ll have to talk to Scott about that,” said Turnbull.

Speaking to the media on Friday, Morrison would not be drawn on the future of the Neg. His new deputy Josh Frydenberg was Turnbull’s environment and energy minster and was responsible for developing the climate policy.

Morrison, ostensibly the moderate candidate, made global headlines last year when he entered parliament brandishing a lump of coal. But he has also said cheap power from new coal plants is a “myth”.

The election of Morrison diminishes the immediate likelihood of Australia exiting the Paris climate agreement, which observers said was possible under a Dutton prime ministership. Dutton is aligned with Abbott, who has repeatedly called for Australia to follow Donald Trump’s US out of the deal.

But the narrowness of the leadership contest shows conservative, Abbott-aligned forces are powerful within the party. Environmental advocates called on Morrison to immediately clarify his position on the Paris deal.

Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Kelly O’Shanassy said: “Australia signed up to Paris in good faith. As one of the highest polluters per person in the world, if we were to capitulate on our responsibilities there would be rightful international condemnation and more unnecessary climate damage at home.”

Greens leader Richard di Natale said the only option for Australia to develop a response to climate change was to vote the government out of office.

“They have no climate policy, no energy policy and no economic policy and the paralysis is likely to continue. They are unfit to govern,” he said.

Di Natale called the Liberals “a bunch of spiteful, backwards-looking, anti-immigration, climate deniers with no economic plan. It’s time to turf them out and make a fresh start”.

Turnbull said he would leave the parliament, triggering a by-election and leaving Morrison with no majority in the lower house. Ties will be resolved by the speaker, Liberal party member Tony Smith, whose vote means Turnbull’s resignation will not immediately bring down the government.

Australia is due to hold elections within the next nine months. The Labor opposition is leading in the polls.

This story was originally published on Climate Home News.

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