By Gabriela Baczynska

WARSAW, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Greenpeace protesters clashed with coal miners at a new opencast mine on Monday in an incident highlighting Poland's environmental dilemma on the eve of a major U.N.-led conference on climate change.

The western Polish city of Poznan will be the venue for the Dec. 1-12 conference aimed at agreeing a new global climate package to replace the Kyoto protocol which expires in 2012.

But Poland still relies on polluting coal for more than 90 percent of its growing energy needs. Along with other ex-communist European Union states, it opposes parts of an EU climate package forcing big cuts in carbon dioxide emissions.

"This is a protest against burning coal and against extracting coal from a mine like this one," Greenpeace Poland spokesman Jacek Winiarski said at the Jozwin opencast mine near Poznan.

"We were stopped violently by miners... but fortunately nobody was hurt," he said of the protest, which involved about two dozen Greenpeace activists waving "Quit coal!" banners.

The Jozwin mine lies near Goplo lake, listed on the EU's Nature 2000 programme aiming to safeguard threatened species in the bloc. Investments can still be conducted in such areas if studies show there is no better option.

Konin, the firm that operates Jozwin, also plans to open a second opencast mine in nearby Tomislawice but environmentalists say this could destroy Goplo, home to rare wildlife.

The company says it has all necessary permits to press ahead also with the second project, which it estimates to cost around 200 million zlotys ($65.10 million).

"We don't plan to scrap this project. Why should we?... We will open the site in two to three years' time. Usually such mines operate for 15 to 20 years," Konin spokesman Radoslaw Stankiewicz told Reuters.

KING COAL

Greenpeace says Poland should cut its reliance on coal and switch to more environmentally-friendly sources of energy.

The Polish government wants to diversify the country's energy sources without harming economic growth, especially at a time of global financial crisis which threatens to undermine Poland's efforts to catch up with richer western Europe.

Some Poles share Greenpeace's concerns but others say wealthier western EU states had built up strong infrastructure before embracing the environmental cause. Poland has begun to receive large-scale EU funds to modernise its dilapidated infrastructure, including roads.

Greens clashed with local residents and police two years ago in months-long protests over a key highway bypassing the Rospuda river, a wilderness area also protected by Nature 2000, an event that triggered a debate in Poland over how to balance economic growth and protect the environment. (Editing by Gareth Jones)

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