“Britain seems to have got a raw deal, paying in more than any other country while other countries will actually make money out of it. We are handing over a huge amount of money and it’s not clear that we will get anything for it.

“Civil servants are in despair about how on earth they are supposed to meet this target and how much it is all going to cost.”

The EU targets, agreed by former Premier Tony Blair last year, will force the EU to produce 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources like windfarms in the next 12 years.

Britain’s target is lower at 15 per cent but because the UK has such a low base of renewable energy the cost here will be far higher – almost double the cost expected in France and Germany. On current trends renewable energy will meet just five per cent of Britain’s needs.

The report suggests the cost of reducing carbon emissions across the EU will be about £39 a ton but the price in the UK will be about £65 a ton.

Ministers are planning to issue a consultation paper in the summer looking at how this can be massively ramped up. They are also hoping to be able to buy renewable energy “credits” from other EU countries that will have less trouble meeting their targets but it is not yet clear that this will be possible.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform last night acknowledged that the aims were “very challenging” but said the detail would not be finalised until next year.

The spokesman added that the Government remained committed to tackling fuel poverty, insisting: “This will become even more important as necessary climate change policies put further upward pressure on prices to the consumer.”

The new report warns that meeting the targets is likely to pose huge practical challenges. The targets assume that biofuels, which currently account for less than one per cent of transport needs, will account for 10 per cent by 2020. Most of this supply will have to be imported but rising concern about using land to grow fuel instead of crops means it may be impossible to meet at any cost.

Public opposition to windfarms has made it difficult for the Government to hit targets and any other forms of renewable energy remain largely untested.

The drive for renewables was dealt a further blow last week when it emerged that Shell wants to pull out of a scheme to build the world’s biggest offshore windfarm in the Thames estuary.