Britain is 'too slow' at cutting emissions

Groundbreaking new legal targets for cutting Britain's greenhouse gas emissions will fall short of what is needed to help limit global warming, environmentalists have warned.

Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, said he had asked the new Committee on Climate Change to review Britain's targets for cutting emissions after a consultation had raised fears that a proposed 60 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050 will not be enough.

The Climate Change Bill, the first of its kind in the world, sets legally binding targets for cuts in carbon emissions, based on five-year carbon "budgets" set at least 15 years ahead. The independent committee will set the first carbon budget by September 2008 but will not report on its review of the target for emission cuts until 2009. Environmentalists say this is too slow.

Martyn Williams of Friends of the Earth, said: "Nobody knows the right level but everybody agrees 60 per cent is not it."

Dr Mark Avery of the RSPB urged the Government not to "miss a golden opportunity to give teeth to action".

Ashok Sinha, of the Stop Climate Chaos coalition, said it would "set an example to the world – but only if it's tough enough".

The shadow Environment Secretary, Peter Ainsworth, said: "The Government must now ensure that its policies match up to its rhetoric."

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