Miliband hints at adoption of stronger emission targets

The new energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband has hinted that he will accept a recommendation from the climate change committee to increase Britain's emissions reduction targets from 60 per cent to 80 per cent by 2050.

Earlier this month, Lord Adair Turner produced a report saying the government should upgrade the carbon emission reduction targets in the climate change bill, after he was asked to look at the feasibility of increasing targets by prime minister Gordon Brown.

Miliband will formally respond to the report in the Commons later today but said he agreed that science had moved on since the 60 per cent targets were agreed in 2000.

"The central argument of the Stern report is that the costs of not acting are worse than the costs of acting, and the longer you leave it, the more expensive it gets. So I don't think there is an option not to act," he said.

Lord Turner's committee also advised that emissions from aviation should be included in the targets, but in a wide-ranging interview with The Guardian – his first as climate change minister after 10 days in the job – Miliband rejected this proposal.

"There is not a credible way of showing aviation can be driven by renewables, " he said.

In comments that will further enrage environmental groups, Miliband committed himself as cautiously pro-nuclear and is yet undecided on whether to give the go-ahead for a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth.

But he is keen to keep the green movement on side. "If there is an assumption of bad faith we are not going to get anywhere," he said.

Reacting to the news yesterday that the EU's flagship climate change package could be delayed beyond the end of the year, Miliband insisted that this was not an option if Europe wanted to show world leadership on the issue.

"By the end of the year the EU must reach agreement on the 2020 package on renewables and energy efficiency. That is how we can send a signal that we can get an agreement on a worldwide UN deal in Copenhagen at the end of next year," he said.

"I am optimistic. I have got a real sense that people are not backing away in face of the costs."

And he said he would look at restructuring energy tariffs and ensuring those on pre-pay meters do not pay more for their energy, while insisting that the credit crunch should not be used as an excuse not to tackle climate change.

"It would not be true to say that after the events of the past three weeks that climate change is at the front of millions of people's minds. But politics is about leadership, and that means saying this is an incredibly important issue not just for us, but for our children," said Miliband.