U.S. Rep. Tom Allen of Maine, one of a half-dozen congressmen attending the World Summit in Johannesburg, said he wants to see renewable energy such as wind and solar power increased fourfold during the next decade.

Allen, a Democrat from southern Maine’s 1st Congressional District, is attending the United Nations convention in South Africa that’s aimed at putting promises from the Earth Summit in Rio a decade ago into action.

Speaking at a news conference Sunday, the congressman called for firm goals and timetables to reduce carbon emissions from coal-burning power plants, out of concern the heat-trapping gas will dangerously warm the Earth’s climate.

“All we’re saying is we want performance standards and accountability for governments,” Allen said during the news conference as part of the advocacy group Global Legislators Organized for a Balanced Environment.

Allen joined Wakako Hironaka, a Japanese senator, and Tony Colman, a British member of Parliament, in calling for a goal of generating 10 percent of all energy worldwide by 2012 from renewable resources without counting major hydroelectric projects. About 2.2 percent of energy now fits that description, Allen said.

“That’s fairly aggressive,” he said.

“I suspect we won’t be able to reach that goal without doing something different.”

The summit drew more than 20 world leaders and could top 100 by the end of the conference Wednesday, the day Allen is due to return to Maine.

A contentious issue was resolved during the weekend when negotiators settled on wording to address the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

The agreed text says nations that have ratified Kyoto “strongly urge” states that have not done so to ratify it in “a timely manner.”

The Bush administration has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol.”The United States is really out in the cold on this,” Allen said.

Other U.S. congressmen who attended the summit were U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.; Jim Greenwood, R-Pa.; Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio; George Miller, D-Calif.; and Chris Shays, R-Conn.