The Polish government has implemented a terrorism alert in the province where the annual UN climate talks are about to start. Climate campaigners are warning of a “tense atmosphere” in and around the city of Katowice in southern Poland, where the global climate negotiations, known as COP24, are due to kick off on Monday...In a statement, the government confirmed the heightened security measures had been introduced in connection with COP24 and will remain in force for the entire length of the talks, until December 15...The news comes after...the Polish Parliament approved a bill that banned all spontaneous protests in Katowice during the talks. ..Sébastien Duyck, a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law, told DeSmog UK that there were “strong tensions” around the law...Duyck added that the data collection powers granted to the police under the law had led some climate campaigners from developing countries with no democratic institutions not to attend the conference in Katowice, fearing repercussions in their own countries...The Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), a Thailand-based network of feminists and grassroots climate organisations, described the bill as “setting a dangerous precedent” and one that “undermines human rights and fundamental freedoms”...“By closing spaces for voices of the people to come into global platforms like the COP, the profit making exploitative industries and the states continue business as usual at the cost of the planet.”