Artur Runge-Metzger, the EU's chief negotiator, said the current voluntary pledges delivered "at best half of the global emissions reductions needed".

"Those who seem to think that it is enough for current pledges to stay as they are up to 2020 seem to be overlooking those facts," he said.

To help pay for these tax cuts, the welfare bills would discard the current pledge to aid every entitled poor person.

President Bush has written that the current pledge is a way of "humbly seeking the wisdom and guidance of divine providence."

In Angola, the F.A.O. estimates that current pledges for food aid fall about 127,000 tons short of the country's needs of about 282,000 tons this year.

Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson and Terence J. Cassidy defended the current pledge, and Dr. Michael A. Newdow argued against it.

Countries have been anxious to point out that, although the current pledges are deemed inadequate by scientists to avert the threat of dangerous global warming, they mean that countries are taking action in the short and medium term.

Schäuble insisted that Germany's current pledge of €211bn will be quite sufficient, because:

It's also worth noting that the IEA ran a "New Policies" scenario that takes into account all current pledges by national governments.

The current pledge is on the 12 oz.