Blair commits Britain to low carbon future

Tony Blair will firmly distance himself from George Bush tomorrow on the importance of defeating a common enemy – global warming.

And he will insist that reducing the burning of oil, one of the main causes of climate change, is essential for world security.

The speech will be given at the launch of the Government's annual progress report on implementing environmental policies, and on the day that it publishes its long-awaited Energy White Paper, signalling a shift towards generating Britain's electricity from wind, waves and other renewable sources. It is being billed by the Prime Minister's advisers as his greenest day since taking office.

Finishing touches are still being made, but Mr Blair's greener advisers and ministers have won an important victory in a last-minute reinstatement of a target to get one-fifth of the country's power from renewable sources by 2020.

As reported in last week's Independent on Sunday, the target was cut from the last draft by the Prime Minister, partly because the Treasury was worried it might commit it to too much spending and partly to balance the downgrading of nuclear energy. It has now been reinstated as "an aspirational goal". Mr Blair, a strong supporter of atomic power, has been forced to accept it should be put on the back burner after the collapse of British Energy. Instead priority will be given to wind and wave power, using fuel cells and generating heat and electricity simultaneously in combined heat and power stations.

The Prime Minister will commit Britain to a "low-carbon" future by cutting emissions of carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming, by 60 per cent by 2050 – the minimum reduction that scientists say will be needed if there is to be any chance of controlling climate change.

Mr Blair will take issue with President Bush's insistence that cutting the use of fossil fuels will harm the economy, and instead stress that anti-pollution measures will lead to greater growth.

But under pressure, particularly from Alastair Campbell, direct challenges to the President by name were last night being excised from the speech. Mr Campbell is pushing for the removal of other passages that might appear to detract from the pressure for war on Iraq, including one that acknowledges that poverty is a cause of terrorism and a call – in a pointed echo of George Bush – for a "coalition of the willing" to tackle climate change.