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However, in its report Beyond Stern: From the Climate Change Programme Review to the Draft Climate Change Bill, the Committee warns that very significant issues remain:

? The UK's targets for 2020 and 2050 must be significantly toughened;

? The proposed Committee on Climate Change must be given a stronger role, including a duty to audit the Government's emissions figures;

? International aviation and shipping emissions must be included within the UK's targets;

? Use of international carbon credits should be strictly limited and transparently reported; and

? Government must focus more on the total amount of carbon emissions the UK can 'safely' emit over the next forty years, rather than on simply hitting annual emissions targets in individual target years.

The Chairman of EAC, Tim Yeo MP, said:

?This report reveals a number of weaknesses in the Government's climate change policy. Carbon-saving measures have not delivered as much as predicted, and forecasts of future emissions have consistently drifted upwards. To make things worse, these forecasts have not been updated often enough, which means that by the time Ministers knew the UK's 2010 CO2 target was significantly off-track it was too late to do much about it.

?The draft Climate Change Bill shows the Government has been learning from its mistakes. Enshrining carbon targets for 2020 and 2050 in law, with a series of five-year carbon budgets beginning in 2008, should help to focus on delivering emissions cuts in the short, medium, and long term. Rigorous annual reports to Parliament should ensure that the Government is quicker to respond when progress starts to slip. Most importantly, the creation of an independent Committee on Climate Change should provide expert scrutiny, and help to depoliticise the consideration of potentially controversial measures.

?But four enormously significant issues remain. The 2020 and 2050 targets need to be significantly strengthened, in accordance with the latest science of where we need to be to limit global warming to 2?C. Our share of international aviation and shipping emissions can and should be included in the UK's targets immediately. And the use of international carbon credits must be limited and transparently reported - and not be used as an excuse for inaction at home. Finally, alongside the proper continuing focus on cutting annual emissions, far more attention must be paid to the rise in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.?

Responding to the report, Friends of the Earth Climate Campaigner Robin Webster said:

?This report shows that the Government's proposed climate change law is simply not strong enough. The law must deliver the emissions reductions which scientists say are needed and it must cover emissions from all sources. Friends of the Earth has been calling, through The Big Ask campaign, for a climate change bill which commits the UK to reducing its emissions by 3% a year and which covers emissions from international shipping and aviation.?