The first annual report of the Climate Change Committee is challenging reading, and it’ll be a shock if many of its recommendations figure prominently in the General Election manifestos as they demand a level of understanding, sacrifice and discipline that won’t appeal to most self-interested voters.

Last year the committee set emission targets for the Government – a carbon budget – and argues that a “step change” is needed, as the progress since 2003 has been well below the required level of reduction, and we must do six times better in the coming years.

Since 2003, each year has seen about half a per cent reduction, when it needs to be three per cent less every year until 2050 to have any chance of keeping the temperature below a rise of 2C.

The suggested way forward must involve transport, home insulation, electricity production and carbon taxation, and the one that could have immediate impact after the election is how we drive cars.

The most significant proposal is that road pricing should be introduced as an additional road tax without any reduction in fuel duty, and they see this as a real encouragement for electric cars, which of course would pay neither. They also reckon that the Government should double the grant for electric cars from 2011 to £10,000 for the first 25,000, to encourage the provision of cheaper batteries.

It doesn’t stop there, as they want the 70mph limit rigorously enforced with speed cameras, as more than half the vehicles exceed this limit. They see merit in making speed limiters mandatory and also reducing the maximum speed to 60mph. With the result, there would be a 20 per cent reduction in fuel use and, therefore, in CO2 production. Finally, eco-driving techniques would be central to the driving test.

On the home front, they expect teams of technicians to install cavity wall and loft insulation, draught-proofing and solid wall cladding to houses to improved standards by 2015.

The electricity for these improved properties would be from four new carbon capture and storage coal-fired stations, three new nuclear ones and up to 8,000 more large wind turbines.

The power companies need encouraging to develop these technologies, and this means that the carbon emission permits must cost at least three times the current £12 per tonne. This would be achieved through further carbon tax, but it will need considerably stronger leadership from politicians than has been the case in the recent past.