TONY BLAIR and the Prime Minister of Sweden urged the rest of the European Union yesterday to join them in a commitment to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.

Mr Blair said that the targets of the Kyoto treaty to curb global warming were not radical enough, and challenged America to do its part in fighting climate change.

He made the announcement as the Government published its long-awaited White Paper on energy needs. The paper came after a record number of consultations, but the Government was accused of ducking hard decisions.

The Kyoto treaty commits Britain to reducing greenhouse gasses by 12.5 per cent by 2010, but the White Paper, Our Energy Future — Creating a Low Carbon Economy, commits Britain to cutting levels by 60 per cent by 2050. It puts a moratorium on building nuclear power stations, and promises to meet the reductions by raising fuel efficiency and boosting renewable energy, such as wind, solar and biomass.

Mr Blair and Göran Persson, the Swedish Prime Minister, wrote a joint letter to Costas Simites, the Prime Minister of Greece, which holds the EU presidency, urging other member nations to adopt the 60 per cent target after it was shown that global greenhouse gas emmissions had increased by 10 per cent since 1990.

“It is clear that Kyoto is not radical enough,” Mr Blair told a conference at the Sustainable Development Commission. “We will continue to make the case to the US and to others that climate change is a serious threat that we must address together.”

The White Paper sets out the main challenges for the Government’s energy policy, the most important of which is to curb greenhouse gas emissions to help to limit climate change. The Government also said that, for the first time since the discovery of North Sea oil, Britain would become a net importer of energy as its own supplies ran dry. Britain will become dependent on imports of gas by 2006, and on imports of oil by 2010. By 2020, Britain could be dependent on imports for three quarters of its energy needs.

The Government pledged to reduce emissions and secure future energy needs by massively expanding renewable energy and promoting efficiency.

The Government said that it hoped to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 25 million tonnes by 2020, with improvements in efficiency in homes and in industry contributing 6 million tonne reductions each. Up to 4 million tonnes will come from improvements in transport, including promoting biofuels and hydrogen fuel cells, and 4 million tonnes from a carbon-emissions trading scheme between businesses.

The rest will come from promoting renewable energy, which at present accounts for about 3 per cent of electricity production. The Government has a target of increasing that to 10 per cent by 2010, and it vowed yesterday to increase it to 20 per cent by 2020. Patricia Hewitt, the Trade and Industry Secretary, said: “The Government is serious about cutting carbon emissions, but we know this cannot be achieved without a fundamental review of the way we produce and consume energy. We need to use less by improving energy efficiency and we must match this with a major expansion of renewables.”

The Government has already introduced a subsidy for renewable energy called the renewable fuels obligation, which will amount to £1 billion annually by 2010. Yesterday it announced a further £348 million over the next four years, and promised to ease planning rules to make it easier to build wind farms. It would also reduce objections to wind farms on Ministry of Defence land. The Government also promised to speed changes to building regulations, to ensure that new properties meet the highest energy efficiency standards in Europe.

The general strategy was welcomed by environment groups, but they said that not enough was being done to ensure that the targets were being met. Roger Higman, of Friends of the Earth, said: “It’s great on aspiration, but it’s by no means the last word on delivery. More measures will be needed to deliver the targets.”

Professor David Wallis, vice-president of the Royal Society, said: “The White Paper shows a lack of political courage to make the hard decisions necessary to move this country away from its dependence on fossil fuels. It outlines a future in which nuclear power could be shut down faster than renewables and energy efficiency measures could make up the shortfall.”

The main points

Introduce a moratorium on the construction of nuclear power stations

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