Greens: Pledge to cut CO2 emissions 90% by 2050

The Green Party has called for climate change to play a larger part in the election campaign.

Launching its mini-manifesto, the pro-environment party set out a series of policies to tackle the threat of global warming.

Pledges include a 10 per cent reduction in road transport by 2010, a cut in home energy demands of 30 per cent by 2015, and a 90 per cent fall in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

In addition, the party will set a 40 per cent target for energy from renewable sources by 2020, and will aim to have cut local authority emissions by 45 per cent by the same year.

Sharing a platform with London assembly member Darren Johnson, MEP Caroline Lucas outlined plans for a range of new "eco taxes" and a shift from global to local trade.

"The government's own scientific adviser has said that climate change is a bigger threat than terrorism, yet it has been entirely absent from the Westminster parties' campaigns, because their policies and their records in office actively contribute to the problem," she said. 

"The big business-driven Westminster parties may tinker round the edges, but they do not have the political will to effect real changes needed to tackle climate change."

Both Lucas and Johnson are calling for the environment to become a bigger issue in the general election campaign.

Their demand is echoed by leading religious and environmental figures, including the Bishops of London and Liverpool, the head of Greenpeace, and Sir David Attenborough.

Meanwhile, a Greenpeace survey concluded that Labour's record on climate change is "deeply irresponsible", and is almost as bad as that of the Conservatives.

The research found that Britain's main parties are failing to live up to their rhetoric about the threat to the environment.

Labour scored only 38 per cent in a challenge on climate change - just one point ahead of the Tories on 37 per cent.

The Liberal Democrats came top with 61 points, though they were strongly criticised for their poor record in local government.