Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has called on countries in the developing world to become more involved in the fight against global warming by setting targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, writes John Rumsey in São Paulo. Before the G8 summit that he is attending in Tokyo, the Brazilian president said that the world should be able to slash emissions by 60-80 per cent by 2050.

Brazil is a leader in biofuel productionand 80-90 per cent of the country's new vehicles can switch between petrol and ethanol. However, the fuels have sparked controversy because of their alleged link to food price inflation. Mr Lula has sought to highlight the efficiency gap between Brazilian sugar cane-based fuel and the less efficient corn-based ethanol, that is prevalent in the US.