Climate change deal agreed

An international agreement has been reached on tackling climate change.

Developing nations will have to face targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions as well as rich countries.

The non-binding declaration is seen as vital in influencing a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol.

And it comes as researchers in the US revealed January was the hottest on record across the planet.

The agreement was reached after an informal meeting in Washington of the G8+5 Climate Change Dialogue - a discussion forum that is part of British-led environmental group Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment (Globe).

Globe was set up to encourage discussion of environmental issues between politicians and business leaders of the world's leading industrialised nations.

The announcement will be seen as a major coup for the British Government because the discussion forum was launched at the House of Commons in February 2006 and its president, Elliot Morley MP, is a special representative of the Prime Minister.

The forum's closing statement said man-made climate change was now "beyond doubt".

A statement from Globe said: "Climate change is a global issue and there is an obligation on us all to take action, in line with our capabilities and historic responsibilities."

The declaration carries no formal weight but it is considered to indicate a real change in mood of the world's most powerful nations.

The two-day meeting brought together legislators from countries including the Group of Eight rich nations plus Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.

Former cabinet minister Stephen Byers MP took part in the forum, joined by influential US senator Joe Lieberman and presidential candidate John McCain.

British businessman Sir Richard Branson, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, all gave keynote addresses.

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