The Government's move to sign up to the world's first "ambitious" climate emissions cuts for the 2020s has been welcomed by environmentalists.
Energy Secretary Chris Huhne announced to MPs in the House of Commons that ministers had agreed to recommendations by their climate advisers which will commit the UK to reducing emissions by 50% on 1990 levels by 2025.
The announcement is a victory for the otherwise beleaguered Lib Dem minister - who faces allegations he asked his estranged wife to accept speeding penalty points on his behalf - after a split within the Cabinet over the emissions targets.
Some ministers, including fellow Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable, were reported to have opposed signing up to ambitious targets for the fourth carbon budget which runs from 2023 to 2027, on the grounds that it could harm growth.
As part of the announcement, Mr Huhne said that before the end of the year a package of measures would be announced which aimed to reduce the impact of the costs for energy-intensive industries. There will also be a review in 2014 of the fourth carbon budget, which could be relaxed if Europe was not making similar efforts.
And there will be no tightening of the second and third budgets up to 2020 before the EU decides if it will sign up to tougher goals for the end of this decade.
The five-year carbon budgets aim to put the UK on track to meet its legally-binding long term goal of an 80% emissions cut by 2050,
Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said PM David Cameron deserved credit for putting a stop to attempts by the Treasury and Mr Cable to "derail the UK's opportunity to be a leader in green growth".
"This announcement makes the creation of new jobs and factories in clean energy industries here more likely and puts the UK back in the race to compete with China, Germany and Silicon Valley in the clean technologies which will power our economies into the future," he said.
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Friends of the Earth's executive director Andy Atkins said Mr Cameron's backing for Mr Huhne over tougher global warming action would "boost his flagging green credentials".
