'Tougher green targets'.

THE chairman of the new Climate Change Committee says it is "highly likely" it will recommend theGovernment to commit itself to tougher long-term targets for emissions cuts.

The committee, set up under the Climate Change Bill, has been asked to report by December on a number of issues, including whether a proposed goal of a 60% reduction by 2050 was enough to tackle global warming.

Chairman Lord Turner said he would be surprised if the panel said a 60% cut was sufficient.

Environmental groups have called for targets of 80% and the Prime Minister has indicated the reductions may need to be strengthened.

Lord Turner said that since the 60% target was first suggested the science had become more cautious about what could be a "safe" rise in carbon dioxide levels, while emissions were going up faster than expected.

The Climate Change Committee will also have to recommend what the first three five-year "carbon budgets" up to 2020 will be and whether they should just include CO2 or the other greenhouse gases as well.

Lord Turner insisted the commit tee would be "robustly independent" and if there was a major divergence between their recommendations and Government policy, ministers would have to explain why.

He said: "We will develop our own point of view on what the targets should be in order to achieve the objective of the world stabilising CO2 at below dangerous levels."

And he warned that in the long term the UK could not rely on emissions trading schemes to achieve the reductions.

He said by 2050 reductions would have to be delivered domestically.