UK government failing on global warming-Tories

LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) The British government's aim of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent by 2050 will not be enough to stop average temperature increases above two degrees Celsius, the Opposition Conservatives said today.

Instead, the government should look at how to cut emissions by 80 per cent below 1990 levels over the same period and set an interim target to make sure it is reached.

''Our understanding of the science tells us that the appropriate stabilisation target range for giving us the best chance to contain temperature increases to two degrees C is 400-450 parts per million CO2 equivalent,'' the party's Quality of Life Policy Group on climate change said.

A report commissioned by the Treasury from former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern said last month containing the rise to between 450 and 550 ppm was more likely -- suggesting temperature increases of at least three degrees.

Currently atmospheric concentrations of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide are around 430 ppm and rising at over two ppm a year.

Scientists say average temperatures will rise by between two and six degrees this century due to carbon gases mainly from burning fossil fuels for power and transport.

They say a rise above two degrees will take the planet's climate into the unknown, with potentially catastrophic floods, famines and violent storms putting millions of lives at risk.

Although Britain only emits some two per cent of the world's carbon dioxide, it has taken a leading role in advocating urgent action to stop and reverse the steep rise from both the industrial nations and boom economies like China and India.

The government said last month it would put into law its voluntary target of cutting CO2 emissions by 60 per cent by 2050, but has refused to set itself annual targets and admitted it is already set to miss its goal of a 20 per cent cut by 2010.

''The Stern report has been very valuable in making the economic case for taking action now,'' said Conservative lawmaker Nick Hurd.

''However, we are concerned that his stabilisation target range lacks the necessary ambition and urgency,'' he added.

The finding was endorsed by environment groups WWF and Friends of the Earth.

The Quality of Life Policy Group is one of six bodies set up by Conservative Party leader David Cameron to draw up a new set of policies for the party he has revitalised and given a green mantle in the year since he was elected party leader.

While its declaration -- the first it has made -- is not automatically party policy, it is likely that its findings will form part of it when it is formally unveiled in mid-2007.

REUTERS PB RK2233