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.

Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf on Friday invited Poland to invest in the coal power generation and coal mining sector in Pakistan to benefit the country with the expertise of Polish technology. He said this while talking to Ambassador of Poland Dr Krzysztof Debnicki, who called on him here on Friday.

The Ambassador discussed matters of mutual interest, especially power and mining sectors to further strengthen the economic ties between the two countries. Raja Pervez Ashraf, welcoming the Ambassador, informed him about the current energy situation faced by Pakistan.

EU Cuts Poland Cod Quota After Overfishing In 2007 LUXEMBOURG: April 15, 2008 LUXEMBOURG - European Union ministers agreed on Monday to reduce Poland's annual allowances over four years for fishing cod in the eastern Baltic Sea as pay back for busting the quota in 2007, officials said on Monday. The decision ends months of angry exchanges between Warsaw and Brussels over whether Poland caught too much cod last year. At one point, Poland even filed a lawsuit against the European Commission, which administers quotas, at the EU's highest court.

Environmental campaign group WWF has denounced the latest round of the EU's Emissions Trading System, saying its heart is in the right place but 'design faults' mean it rewards those burning the most coal. The scheme, designed to cut the continent's carbon emissions, will perversely provide a windfall for the biggest emitters, says the WWF. The conservation charity asked carbon market analysts Point Carbon to estimate the windfall profits in five European countries - the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland - over the current five year phase of the scheme.

Poland Sees Power Prices Surging On EU Carbon Plan NORWAY: April 10, 2008 OSLO - Polish electricity prices could surge 50-70 percent if the European Union goes ahead with plans to force power producers to buy their carbon emission permits from 2013, Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki said on Wednesday. Nowicki said Poland would be particularly hard hit by the rules, proposed in January and contested by Warsaw, because nearly all of its electricity comes from dirty coal and lignite and so its power producers will need a large number of permits.

Next US President Urged To Outline Climate Policy NORWAY: April 10, 2008 OSLO - The next US president should signal a shift in global warming policies before taking office to help a UN meeting in Poland in December take steps to work out a new climate treaty, Poland said on Wednesday. Under President George W. Bush, the United States is the only rich nation opposed to the UN's Kyoto Protocol capping greenhouse gas emissions until 2012. Many nations expect a shift under Bush's successor, whether a Democrat or a Republican.

A meeting of United Nations member states in Bangkok on Monday to discuss climate change is the first in a series this year at which the action plan adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007, will be translated into concrete steps on the road to a new global climate change agreement. We, the president of Indonesia and the prime ministers of Poland and Denmark, have decided to join forces in a coordination group at the highest political level. Our goal is to facilitate an ambitious climate change agreement in Copenhagen in 2009.

over plastic ban: A group of plastic bag manufacturers and recyclers in the US state of California has filed a lawsuit against the Oakland city authorities over a ban on plastic shopping bags.