Latest predictions show that climate change is going to be far worse than earlier forecasts

The leading leftwing thinktank examines the next steps beyond the Kyoto agreement under which the UK has agreed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5% and the EU by 8%. But runaway global warming is likely unless the US, the world's biggest polluter can be persuaded to take the issue seriously, the report says.

Geoff Jenkins, the head of the climate prediction programme at the Hadley Centre for Climate Change, says that when soil inevitably starts to break down, it releases the carbon stored in the last 150 years - thus increasing the rate of global warming.

Scientists predict temperatures to rise 5C (9 F) in the northern hemisphere by 2100. The new calculations show it could be 8C (14.4 degrees F). Scientists believe this would be disastrous, and to prevent even higher rises developed countries must cut emissions by 80%.