Electric cars will be in widespread use by 2020 as part of measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the head of the Committee on Climate Change, the government advisory body, said yesterday.

Transforming private transport from reliance on the internal combustion engine to electric and hybrid cars was highlighted as one of the most effective ways of reducing fossil fuel consumption.

Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, the chairman of the committee, said that such measures were necessary to enable Britain to meet ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a third over the next decade.

Electric and hybrid vehicles are expected to form up to 40 per cent of cars on the road by 2020. Because such cars are much quieter than those with combustion engines they may need to be “fitted with bells” or some other warning system to ensure people hear them coming, Lord Turner said.

Cars that still use fossil fuel will face tough limits on how much carbon dioxide they pump out, reducing the legal level for new cars to almost two thirds of current levels.

Dramatic increases in the number of homes and businesses fitted with insulation are expected to be another key measure, as is the widespread take-up of smart meters to help to reduce fuel bills.

The cost of electricty and gas for heating and powering homes is, nevertheless, expected to rise significantly by 2020 because of increasing reliance on more expensive renewable sources, forcing another 1.7 million people into fuel poverty. Measures can, however, be taken by the Government to allievate the problems caused to the poorest without any need to water down the targets, Lord Turner said.

The committee published its first report, Building a Low-Carbon Economy, as the United Nations conference on climate change opened in Poznan, Poland. The conference is seeking ways of reaching an international agreement that will replace the Kyoto Protocol to ensure that global warming is combated with reductions in greenhouse gases worldwide.

The committee urged the Government to accept a target of a 34 per cent reduction as a minimum. They said that emissions should be cut even further, to at least 42 per cent from levels in 1990, if an international agreement on setting post-Kyoto targets can be reached by the end of next year. The targets cut deeper than the Climate Change Act, which received Royal Assent last week and sets Britain a 26 per cent reduction target by 2020, but in CO2 emissions alone, rather than overall greenhouse gases.

“Climate change poses a grace threat to human welfare, the environment and the economy,” Lord Turne said. “We need to act now, in the UK and as part of a global agreement to significantly reduce our emissions.”

Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, will take time to consider the recommendations, but said that emission budgets would help Britain to plot its course to a low-carbon economy.

Greg Clark, the Conservative spokesman, said that he was pleased by the targets and budgets but was concerned that fuel poverty would be the price to be paid for the Government’s failure to get to grips with climate change sooner. “I will be pressing ministers to act to stop the poorest energy customers being penalised as a result of the Government’s own lack of forward planning,” he said.

Lord Rees of Ludlow, the President of the Royal Society, said that developing carbon capture and storage technology (CCS) was a priority because oil, gas and coal were likely to dominate power generation for several decades. He called for international annual funding of up to £6.7 billion for developing CCS, adding that it was a “small price to pay” to cut emissions “before the atmospheric concentration irrevo-cably reach a threatening level”.

Britain’s greenhouse gas budgets, as recommended by the Committee on Climate Change

Interim budget for greenhouse gas emission limits — in the absence of an international deal

2008-2012: 3018 million tonnes

2013-2017: 2,819 million tonnes

2018-2022: 2,570 million tonnes

Intended budget for greenhouse gas emission limits — assuming international deal is reached in 2009

2018-2022: 3018 million tonnes

2013-2017: 2,679 million tonnes

2018-2022: 2,245 million tonnes

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