Oil producers foil green energy plan

Opec countries and the US together sabotaged plans for a big increase in renewable energy at the Earth Summit yesterday, replacing it with a proposal to boost the burning of fossil fuels, which cause global warming, in developing countries.

After six days of talks at the biggest conference ever staged – into the future of the planet – the failure to agree a deal on renewable energy is a bitter blow.

There was some good news, however. The US looks more likely to drop its opposition to a plan to halve the number of people without adequate sanitation by 2015.

The two moves, on the two most importantissues facing the summit, come as negotiations enter their most crucial day. Delegates have to reach agreement on a disputed plan of action tonight, before more than 100 world leaders fly in to the summit tomorrow.

The energy move was "an unholy alliance between Opec countries and a US administration run by Exxon," said one European minister. It was backed by Japan and buried a promising initiative, led by Brazil, for the world to get 10 per cent of its fuel – four times the current level – from clean renewable energies by 2010. A big increase in renewable energy is seen as the most effective way of getting energy to the Third World poor.

But oil-producing delegates persuaded the Third World to reject the initiative and to press instead to be given "fossil fuel technologies" on "concessional terms".