A proposal by President George W. Bush to halt the growth of US greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 met a cool response from other governments on Thursday.

The proposal, made on Wednesday before two days of US-led talks in Paris on climate change, fell far short of what other governments have demanded as a response to scientific warnings on global warming.

The reaction dimmed prospects for progress at the Paris talks, and at later United Nations negotiations.

Germany slammed the proposal, which would allow emissions from the US to continue to rise until 2025. The environment minister’s office issued a statement describing the speech as “neanderthal” and demonstrating “not leadership but losership”. France said the target was “a bit late”.

The European Commission took a more measured approach, saying the White House target did “not match the level of ambition needed on the part of developed countries, considering their responsibilities in the challenge we face”. The Commission’s plan is to cut emissions in the European Union by 20 per cent by 2020.

Privately, officials involved in the international climate change negotiations said they were startled by the weakness of the US proposal. Mr Bush launched a series of meetings of the world’s biggest emitting countries last year with much fanfare – pledging to reach an agreement on how far to cut global emissions.

Talks had focused on proposals to halve emissions by 2050 – a goal that has the broad support of the EU, Japan and other developed countries. But Mr Bush’s proposal to set 2025 as the date for halting the growth of emissions would render such a target nearly impossible to meet. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found last year that worldwide emissions should peak between 2015 and 2020 if irreversible damage was to be avoided.

The White House said it was not surprised by the negative reaction. It hinted at the fierce debate in the US between those who favour a more aggressive approach and climate-change sceptics, concentrated in the Republican party, who want Mr Bush to do little or nothing.

“Slings and arrows would have been thrown yesterday – no matter what we said. That’s the nature of the debate on climate change,” said Tony Fratto, White House spokesman.

Jim Connaughton, the chief White House adviser on environmental affairs, acknowledged that the US target fell short of those set by other countries, but questioned whether the EU’s goal was achievable. “There are a number of proposals around the world for very, very aggressive targets, but nobody can explain to you how you get from here to there,” he said. “If you don’t have the technologies to meet the target, the target is no good.”

Mr Bush also had domestic reasons for making his speech. The Democratic party-led Congress is pushing a range of measures to tackle global warming – most of them unacceptable to the White House. Critics said Mr Bush’s 2025 target was designed in part to head off a Senate proposal to halt emissions growth by 2012.