In his speech to the Conservative Party conference, Mr Osborne said: “We know that a decade of environmental laws and regulations are piling costs on the energy bills of households and companies.

“Yes, climate change is a man-made disaster, yes we need international agreement to stop it.”

“But…we are not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business.

“So let’s at the very least resolve that we are going to cut our carbon emissions no slower but also no faster than our fellow countries in Europe.

“That’s what I’ve insisted on in the recent carbon budget.”

The coalition agreement insists that the Government “will push for the EU to demonstrate leadership in tackling international climate change, including by supporting an increase in the EU emission reduction target to 30% by 2020”.

Mr Osborne’s intervention was attacked by environmental groups.

Keith Allott, a spokesman for the WWF, said: “Tackling climate change requires genuine leadership and the UK should be at the forefront. Efforts to develop energy efficiency and clean energy will improve the UK’s energy security, create new industries and jobs and leave us less reliant on volatile fossil fuels.

“The world is looking for leadership on our environmental problems, and to date the UK has been prominent in calling for the EU to increase the ambition of its emission reduction targets. “Choosing to travel at the pace of the slowest in Europe and beyond is a recipe for climate catastrophe - instead, the Chancellor should be seizing the opportunities for the UK to become a leader in the global clean energy race.”

Ruth Davis from Greenpeace added: “They said they would be the greenest government ever, but George Osborne just stole a line straight out of George Bush’s climate playbook.”