Focus

The decision could not have come at a better time. On the day scientists said carbon dioxide levels had reached a new record high, world leaders have laid plans for a new global agreement on climate change to succeed the Kyoto protocol.

After a two-day meeting in Washington, lawmakers from some 20 nations, including the US, agreed a long-term goal to stabilise concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

But their target range - 450-550 parts per million - was described as "catastrophic" by environmental groups, because the resulting temperature rise of 2-4C would be enough to melt the polar ice sheets and leave two billion more people without water.

The informal meeting in Washington saw delegates from the G8 nations, plus Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, gather to outline a treaty that could succeed the Kyoto protocol.

British businessman Sir Richard Branson, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Paul Wolfowitz, the president of the World Bank, all gave keynote addresses. Former cabinet minister Stephen Byers, MP, took part in the forum, as did influential US senator Joe Lieberman and presidential candidate John McCain.

They agreed that developing countries as well as rich nations must meet targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. They also recommended a world carbon trading market should be set up to cap emissions and inspire investment in greener forms of electricity.

Their statement urges the G8+5 governments to put a fresh treaty in place by 2009, three years before Kyoto expires. The declaration carries no formal weight but is considered to indicate a change in mood of the most powerful nations, especially the US.

The Bush administration refused to adopt Kyoto, arguing the economic costs would be crippling and that the science remained unclear. Contrast that scepticism with the forum's emphatic closing statement, that man-made climate change was "beyond doubt" and "the cost of inaction will be greater than the cost of action".

The announcement will be seen as a major coup for the British government. The discussion forum is part of the UK-led environmental group, Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment (Globe). Globe was launched at the House of Commons in February 2006 and its president, Elliot Morley, MP, is a special representative of the Prime Minister.

"I'm very happy with this outcome," Mr Morley told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "It contains a number of broad principles that all the countries here are generally supportive of in terms of the way forward.

"I think it is a great step forward in terms of building confidence and it is a very clear message from legislatorsthat we want to see progress."

Environment Secretary David Miliband said: "Globe's statement delivers a strong message to the meeting of G8 heads of state in June and I hope it will help unblock the political logjam."

The agreement to cap emissions was given a cautious welcome by environmental groups Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. Their problem was with the targets. They warned that the levels being discussed could bring about a "climate catastrophe".

Charlie Kronick, head of Greenpeace's climate change campaign, said: "The projected target for climate-wrecking gases would result in a disastrous three-degree increase in temperature.

"This would see the loss of 20-30% of species, melt of two polar ice sheets, add one to two billion more people to those suffering water scarcity and trash the world's remaining rainforests and coral reefs. Politicians can't truly tackle climate change by statements alone. Real action and political will is urgently needed to prevent a global disaster."

Nevertheless, Greenpeace said the statement was a significant step forward, particularly as it included the emerging industrial nations left out by Kyoto - including India and China, which is building a new coal-fired power plant every week to feed its economic transformation.

Rising emissions from Asian industry are behind the record high levels of atmospheric CO2. Globe delegates warned developing countries too must cut their emissions, but this drew uneasy response from representatives.

Tejaswini Seeramesh, a delegate from Bangalore, said the onus remained on rich nations to clean up their act. "If we have to change our way of life, everyone else will have to make sacrifices," he said.

His view was echoed by Friends of the Earth Scotland. "Although some developing countries are now starting to increase their emissions, it is the rich countries that have caused the vast majority of the historical emissions that are now resulting in global climate change," said Duncan McLaren, its chief executive. "Countries like Britain and the US have prospered economically from pollution. If anything, we owe developing countries a carbon debt. We have a moral obligation to assist them to grow, without making the same mistakes we did."

Following the announcement, Sir Nicholas Stern said candidates in the 2008 US presidential election would make climate change a key part of their campaigns. The former World Bank chief economist, whose landmark report last year gave stark warnings about the consequences of failing to act swiftly, also took part in the discussions in Washington.

"In the UK the three parties are competing with each other on action on climate change," he told an audience at the UN in New York. "The same is true in France and candidates in the US election will compete on the issue."

Sir Nicholas said it was wrong to say that either China or the US was doing nothing on global warming. He added: "I'm much more optimistic than I might have been six or nine months ago about where the world is moving. We're moving in the right direction."