"We are very close to attaining an agreement," Tusk said on the opening day of a two-week UN climate conference in Poznan, Poland.
Poland disagrees with some of the proposed EU emissions trading scheme, which places caps on carbon emissions from heavy industry by distributing a fixed quota of carbon permits, most which can currently be obtained for free. Instead, Poland is seeking to protect its industry by ensuring that its power plants can receive some free permits until 2013 and to cap carbon prices using a defined "price corridor".
The coalition of the new EU member states has already stated that the Polish proposal was not sufficient for a deal. The states’ representatives met in Gdansk, northern Poland, with French president Nicolas Sarkozy this weekend to try and obtain an agreement before the EU summit.
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