Targets to cut carbon emissions 'not enough to stop climate change'

Rich countries will have to help poorer nations develop alternatives to fossil fuels as well as cutting their own emissions if the world is to tackle climate change, according to a new report.

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent Last Updated: 4:03PM GMT 07 Dec 2008

More than 190 countries have gathered in Poznan Poland for the UN Climate Change Conference this week to decide a way forward on global warming.
The meeting will draw up the format for a replacement of the Kyoto Protocol to be decided in Copenhagen next year.
One of the most controversial issues are whether to commit to numeric targets to cut carbon emissions.
At the moment the EU is proposing to cut emissons by 30 per cent by 2020.
A new report however, from the Global Climate Network said rich countries will also have to help poorer nations develop low carbon technology so that they are pumping out less carbon from coal or oil.
Andrew Pendleton, senior research fellow at Institute for Public Policy Research that took part in the research, said: "Industrialised countries' current proposals clearly fall well short of the mark.
"But there's genuine concern in most about what levels of emissions reduction are physically possible by 2020 and what this effort will cost.
"Ministers meeting in Poland... should focus on how to achieve a rapid acceleration in the development of low carbon technologies and finance to ensure that these technologies are deployed as soon as possible."
Ministers are expected to decide on wheter to include targets in any agreement by the end of this week.
They will also decide on how to pay poorer countries to halt deforestation and whether to set up an adaptation fund to help developing countries cope with climate change.