Taoiseach warns of costs in climate change battle

IRISH families will have to pay more in order to bring climate change under control, Taoiseach Brian Cowen has warned as China signalled new momentum in the battle to combat green house gasses.

Global warming dominated a special meeting of the United Nations general assembly as Mr Cowen and more than 100 other heads of government gathered to try and break the deadlock on cutting carbon emissions.

With China now the biggest polluter in the world, Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged to set targets for reducing his country’s emissions for the first time, but western nations expressed disappointment he did not specify numbers.