The world's largest economies are gathering in London for a G-20 summit Thursday in an attempt to align efforts to combat global recession.

"These packages amounting to billions of dollars provide a clear opportunity to shift to a more environmentally-sustainable economy," said Kim Cartensen, director of WWF's Global Climate Initiative.

"Unfortunately, the packages reveal inadequate incentives for greener technologies or any pronounced move away from high-carbon investment," he told journalists on the sideline of UN climate talks in Bonn.

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said the price tag for keeping global temperatures from increasing more than 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) is one-to-three percent of global GDP.

Sir Nicholas Stern, a top climate economist, calculates the cost at two percent.

By these measures, the US and Germany -- spending about 0.5 percent of GDP -- rank highest, found the study, which measured the climate impact of investments in sectors ranging from renewables and energy efficiency, on the green side of the spectrum, to building roads and new fossil fuel power plants, on the "gray" side.

For Britain and Italy, the amount of carbon-intensive stimulus actually exceeded the amount devoted to climate protecting measures, the study said.

Overall, of the 1.1 trillion dollars worth of stimulus included in the economic recovery plans reviewed, climate friendly expenditures amounted to 73 billion dollars, less than seven percent of the total.

Most countries have focused their climate-related activity on energy efficiency in cars, with less emphasis on developing clean energy sources and restructuring electricity grids.

The study, done jointly by experts at environmental groups WWF and E3G, set out to evaluate the green quotient of all G-20 countries with stimulus plans, including major emerging economies such as China and India.

But the paucity of data made that impossible. "The fact that we are unable to comprehensively analyse the results of two thirds of the countries which have announced packages is a real concern," said Nick Mabey, CEO of E3G.

Still, the scale of China's ambition in moving toward a low carbon economy has been praised by some climate experts and negotiators in Bonn.

"If we think of comparability, in many ways developing countries are doing even more. It is remarkable," Jonathan Pershing, a top climate negotiator for the United States, told delegates at a plenary session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on Wednesday.

"The level of effort being provided here -- among other from China -- even double that of the US in a clean component of its energy plan. We salute them," he said.

More than 190 nations working within the Convention have set themselves a year-end deadline for hammering out a global climate deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, whose provisions run out in 2012.

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