The government should increase its emission-reduction targets for 2020, a committee of MPs has argued.

The Commons environmental audit committee has called for the UK to raise its commitment to cut emissions from 42 per cent (on 1990 levels) by 2020. The current target is 34 per cent.

But the report said the government should only increase its target once it is on track to meet its current commitments in the UK carbon budgets that were formally adopted last year.

The MPs warned that the country was only on target to meet the current carbon budget - which runs from 2008 to 2012 - because of the effects of the recession.

At the moment, emissions are falling at around one per cent a year, but the rate needs to more than double to between two and three per cent annually.

The committee said the UK seemed "reluctant" to move unilaterally on tackling climate change, but said the country would not secure the competitive advantage it is looking for in a low-carbon economy - including green jobs - without being an early mover.

However, committee chairman Tim Yeo warned that the UK’s efforts on emissions would be “meaningless” without a global deal on cuts.

“We must send a clear signal to developing countries that we are serious about making an international deal work - by meeting our own targets more quickly,” Yeo said.

He added: "Setting carbon budgets involves making a series of difficult political judgments that balance what science is telling us with what is affordable, feasible and politically acceptable.

"On balance, the government has got these judgments right. Where it is falling down is on delivery."

Liberal Democrat energy and climate change spokesman Simon Hughes said it was now “clear” that the UK needed to raise its emission-reduction target to over 40 per cent.