Offers on the table ahead of the Copenhagen climate change talks are only "a few billion tonnes" short of the scale of annual CO2 emission cuts required to meet 2020 environment targets, Lord Stern said yesterday.

He acknowledged there was a "significant way to go" but insisted: "It is possible to get there."

The economist and global warming expert was speaking in Brussels after breakfast talks with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In London he said world leaders were more than halfway towards the kind of promises needed to save the planet at Copenhagen.

His latest report says global emissions are currently 47 billion tonnes of greenhouses gases a year, and could rise to 58 billion tonnes in 2020. To keep global warming to no more than a two degree rise, says his report, emissions should be held at about 44 billion tonnes in 2020.

He praised the "vital lead" taken by the EU, and went on: "If you look at the kind of offers that are now on the table, we are just a few billion tonnes short per annum of the kind of emission cuts we need to get on target for 2020.

"That means there is a significant way to go but it is possible to get there."

Lord Stern said a "strong, outline, political agreement" at Copenhagen could lead to a dynamic industrial revolution.