The European Parliament on Wednesday adopted a report to recommend detailed measures to be taken in key economic sectors to achieve a future European Union (EU) integrated policy on climate change.

The parliament calls for the EU and the other industrialized countries to set, as a group, a medium-term target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020 on 1990 levels, as well as a long-term reduction target of at least 80 percent by 2050.

The report sets out in detail a broad range of measures covering a variety of sectors.

The measures include a binding goal of 20 percent improvement in energy efficiency by 2020; the creation of an EU external energy policy, of solar energy partnerships with third countries in the Mediterranean region; long-term target in the building sector of net zero-energy performance in new residential buildings by 2015 and in new commercial and public buildings by 2020.

It also asks EU member states and institutions to support research and development in energy technologies such as hydrogen, electric, fuel cells, hybrids or advanced biofuels. It asks the European Commission to consider setting emission reduction targets from the agricultural sector and calls for the development of an EU-wide "supergrid" accessible to all forms of electricity providers.

The report urges the European commission, the executive body of the EU, to pay special attention to radioactive waste and its full cycle, with a view of improving safety of nuclear energy although EU member states have different approaches with regard to nuclear energy.

The report wants the next EU financial framework to give the highest priority to climate change and measures to combat it. It also sees the need to increase funding to combat climate change in developing countries and wants to incorporate emission reduction requirements and adaptation to climate change in development aid programs.