Summit agreement is struck, but US blocks deal on clean energy

Ministers and heads of state agreed a new plan of action last night for tackling poverty and saving the environment, but, in a rebuff for Tony Blair, they did not include a target for increasing renewable energy.

An "unholy alliance" of oil exporting countries and the United States, backed by Japan, succeeded in frustrating all attempts to set a target and managed to include clauses promoting nuclear power and fossil fuels that are the main cause of global warming.

The decision is a body blow to the credibility of the summit, as the target was probably the most important touchstone of whether it would make progress in tackling the twin crises of growing poverty and escalating environmental deterioration. The overall verdict must be that it has largely failed.

But Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary, who led the British negotiators, told The Independent last night: "I can genuinely say that I am delighted. We have a very strong plan of implementation."

Margot Wallström, the European environment commissioner, said she was disappointed by the failure to get a renewable energy target. Steve Sawyer of Greenpeace said: "It is called a plan of action, but it is not much of a plan and there does not seem to be an awful lot of action."

Renewable energy was an important yardstick of success because of, all the issues on the table at the summit, it could have done most to address the poverty and the environmental crises facing the planet.

It is widely seen as the best way of bringing electricity to the Third World poor and it would drastically cut the two million deaths a year caused by breathing in smoke from burning wood and dung. It would also save the soil and, by reducing the amount of these traditional fuels taken from the land, it would combat global warming.

In a personal initiative two years ago, Mr Blair persuaded his fellow G8 leaders to set up a task force to look at increasing the use of renewable energy. The group, co-chaired by Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, a former chairman of Shell, produced recommendations that would have brought clean renewable energy to one billion people by 2010.

But Opec and the US sank that and all subsequent targets, including a plan backed by all of Latin America that would have quadrupled the world's share of clean renewable energy by the end of the decade. By last night, all that was left was a modest EU target that would have increased renewables by just 1 per cent over the decade, but that was rejected as well. Britain and the EU were unable to hold that line against the assault of the oil exporting countries and the oilmen in the White House. Some of the language of the text closely reflects Vice-President Dick Cheney's controversial energy plan.

Britain was left with just two consolations. This is the first time energy has been included in such a plan; until now, Opec and the US have resisted even discussing it. And it included a paragraph agreeing to phase out energy subsidies "that inhibit sustainable development" – but only "where appropriate".

The collapse leaves as the only significant achievement of the summit the setting of a target to halve the number of people in the world without basic sanitation.

The Tories and Liberal Democrats expressed disappointment. Sue Doughty, a member of the Commons Environmental Audit Committee, said: "These targets are worth more than nothing but less than something."