Poland faces crippling energy price rises which will threaten growth and employment unless the European Union rethinks its carbon trading system, officials in Warsaw are warning.

The world should not wait until next year to cobble together a new climate change pact, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Sunday.

Ban, addressing diplomats and officials at a ceremony for the 20th anniversary of the UN climate panel, said countries negotiating a successor deal to the Kyoto Protocol should aim for a meaningful breakthrough in Poznan, Poland, in December.
Delaying major advances until the end of 2009, when a Copenhagen summit will aim to finalise an accord to tackle rising global temperatures, may be ill-advised, Ban told the event in Geneva.

The fight against global warming is in danger of being downgraded on more urgent fears over energy security, heightened by a Russian war with Georgia, and a global economic slowdown.

Added to the mix -- politicians are faced with a rising clamour of complaints from voters over record fuel bills, and racing gas and oil prices have sparked new interest in high-carbon coal as well as cleaner alternatives.