Portugal, current holder of the EU president, is calling on the rest of the union to adopt the emission targets set out by the UK in its proposed climate change bill.

According to reports in today's Guardian, Portugal's trade and energy minister, Manuel Pinto, said the EU should endorse the UK target of cutting emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.

Currently, the EU is working towards cutting emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 while also generating 20 per cent of its energy mix from renewable sources.

The calls come a week after the European Commission unveiled a major energy strategy designed to bolster the research and development of low-carbon energy technologies.

The Strategic Energy Technology Plan aims to tackle the problem of "under-funded, dispersed and badly coordinated" EU energy research by integrating clean energy R&D efforts and launching a European Energy Research Alliance to "ensure much greater cooperation among energy research organisations as well as improved planning and foresight at European level for energy infrastructure and systems" .

The Commission added that it recognised the need for greater funding of R &D into low-carbon energy technologies and promised to outline plans to provide more finance for such projects next year.

"We have the chance to be world leaders in low-carbon technologies, but if Europe doesn't act together more effectively, we will squander that opportunity and the economic benefits of the transition to a low-carbon economy will go elsewhere," warned Janez Potočnik, Commissioner for Science and Research at the European Commission. "The ideas that the Commission is putting forward today will allow Europe to develop a world-class portfolio of affordable, clean, efficient and low-emission energy technologies."

In separate news, UK prime minister Gordon Brown risked denting his recently bolstered green credentials by declaring his unequivocal support for a third runway at Heathrow.

Speaking at the annual CBI conference, Brown said that while the government was committed to pulling aviation into the EU's emissions trading scheme it also had to respond to "a clear business imperative and increase capacity at our airports".

However, environmentalists slammed the move, arguing that it was in contradiction to his commitment last week to make the UK a low-carbon economy.

Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper described the prime minister's speech as "confusing and deeply worrying". "Last week [Brown] talked about making Britain a world leader in developing a low-carbon economy," he added. " But allowing airports to expand will seriously threaten our targets for cutting carbon dioxide emissions."

But business leaders are likely to welcome the move. Speaking ahead of the pubication of its major new report on climate change, CBI director general Richard Lambert said that the CBI would continue to call for a third runway at Heathrow while promoting improved aviation technologies and air traffic control initiatives designed to cut carbon emissions.