If there's one environmental award a country wouldn't want to win, it might well be CAN's (Climate Action Network) Fossil of the Day, awarded to countries adjudged to have put pollution-causing development ahead of lives. On November 30, Poland took its first such title since hosting the UN climate talks in Poznań in 2008. The Climate Action Network is a worldwide network of more than 700 NGOs in more than 90 countries, working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels.

Poland's dubious honor comes largely thanks to its presidency of the EU and its decision to support "European Coal Days", which must be a slap in the face to the EU as it looks to promote its new roadmap for a binding climate deal. The burning of coal, which is the dirtiest fossil fuel in the world, accounts for nearly half of all CO2 emissions.

Needless to say, Poland's position attracted a good deal of ire. "The Polish Presidency seems to be talking out of both sides of its collective mouth," read a scathing CAN press release. "On one hand, it decides to support a private interest lobby for the most polluting of all fossil fuels, while on the other, it is talking big about finding a global solution to climate change."

Canada won a Fossil for the third day in succession, this time taking second place after having scooped first place the previous day (November 29). Canada's Fossils have come largely as a result of its Environment Minister Peter Kent's continual bashing of developing nations. In an interview with the Canadian Press before leaving for Durban, Kent said that emerging and developing countries need to stop "wielding the historical guilty card" and asking for a free pass on emissions reductions just because in the past, industrialized countries had more emissions than the rest of the world,

His words indicate he has failed to understand the fundamental principal of common but differentiated responsibility under UNFCCC, which became a central pillar in global climate negotiations, recognizing that those who did the most to cause this problem should act first and fastest to clean up the mess they made.

About The Fossil of the Day Awards

The Fossil of the Day Awards were first presented at the climate talks in 1999, in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During UN climate talks, CAN members vote daily for the countries judged to have done their 'best' to block progress in that day's negotiations.