Blair under fire for CO2 retreat

Greenpeace yesterday accused Tony Blair of retreating on his commitment to fight global warming after the government scaled back its plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 16.3%.

Margaret Beckett, the environment secretary, said the final plan submitted to the European commission would see an initial cut in CO2 emissions of 15.2% on 1990 levels by 2010.

The proposal, one of the most ambitious in Europe, comes in advance of a CO2 emissions trading scheme designed to help Europe meet its Kyoto commitments on reducing greenhouse gases and due to come into effect on January 1.

Stephen Tindale, Greenpeace's executive director, said the prime minister should have "stuck to his guns" after warning last week that global warming was the greatest problem facing the planet.

"He's retreating in the face of a little light lobbying from business.

"On the same day new evidence of global warming is published, Mr Blair is sending out all the wrong signals."

But Elliot Morley, the environment minister, said the scaling back was due to changes in the DTI's modelling and the inclusion of 1,080 factories and plants instead of the 900 originally foreseen.

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