Brown to banish use of plastic bag from Britain

London, Nov 20 (UNI) Setting ambitious climate change targets for the country, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has vowed to banish use of plastic bags.

Mr Brown has urged the British Retail Consortium, forum of supermarkets, and other groups to end the use of disposable bags.

Speaking two weeks before the Bali conference on climate change, the Prime Minister warned that rich countries, including the US and the UK, may have to increase their targets for cuts in emissions to 80 per cent.

He said they needed to match the urgency highlighted by the International Energy Agency that ''business as usual'' would lead to increase in carbon emissions by 60 per cent.

The targets could mean Britain would have to supply 40 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and wave power by 2020, The Independent quoted the Prime Minister as saying.

Greenpeace leaders have been sceptic that these goals would not be met unless a dramatic investment in renewable sources was made.

Britain was planning for more wind farms, and wave and tidal schemes pending the expected go-ahead for more nuclear power stations in the new year.

The climate change challenge facing the world would require a fourth technological revolution as great as the invention of the steam engine, the internal combustion engine and the microprocessor, Mr Brown said.

UNI