Green policies: how the three parties compare

Conservatives
Emissions: The Conservatives say that they want to achieve a reduction in CO2 of at least 60% by 2050, but unlike the government they say they would have annual targets for the cuts, set and monitored by an independent climate change commission.

Liberal Democrats

Emissions: The party's current long-term target is a 60% reduction from 1990 levels by 2050 - the same as Labour's - and the Lib Dems also share the government's target of a 20% cut in CO2 emissions by 2010.

But a proposed policy to make Britain carbon-neutral by 2050 will be discussed at the Lib Dem conference next week.

The Lib Dems back a policy of "contraction and convergence" which would set up a global framework to cap CO2 emissions at a per-person level which is the same for all countries.

Labour

Emissions: The draft climate change bill, published in March, set down a target to reduce CO2 emissions by 60% on 1990 levels by 2050, and an interim target of a 26%-32% reduction by 2020. There is no annual emissions target. Instead, the government has committed to setting five-year "carbon budgets" and reporting to parliament on its progress every year. Initially budgets will be set for 2008-12, 2013-17 and 2018-22, but in future they will be set 15 years in advance.

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