Britain will miss its legal target to cut emissions by 80% by the middle of the century unless action is taken to cut greenhouse pollution from gas-powered stations, influential government advisers warned today.

In a letter to Chris Huhne, the climate secretary, the climate change committee said the government's existing pledge to fit new coal power stations with expensive carbon capture and storage equipment should be extended to new gas generators as well. Such a move could see the UK be the first in the world to build such a plant and capitalise on a new "dash for gas".

To avoid missing carbon targets the committee said the government should change its promise to fund up to four trials of carbon capture and storage (CCS) equipment on coal stations and do "at least one" of the demonstrations with gas power.

To provide long-term incentives to the industry to develop the technology, Adair Turner, the committee chairman, also urged the Conservative-Liberal Democrat cabinet to extend a promised emissions performance standard (EPS) for coal power to the gas sector. Such standards, which regulate what power stations can emit and could be set in the energy bill later this year, would need to be zero greenhouse gas emissions from 2020, David Kennedy, the committee's chief executive, said.

Although coal is more polluting than gas per unit of energy generated, the recent fall in gas prices, new shale gas mining and mass campaigns against new coal power have stimulated a second "dash for gas". According to The Ends Report, the specialist environment news service, about 24 new gas-powered station – adding up to 29 gigawatts of power – are under construction or in the planning process, compared with two planning applications for new coal generators, and a handful of other mooted projects.

"Under business-as-usual and current market arrangements, our modelling says people will keep building new gas-fired generation beyond 2020, and that's in conflict with de-carbonisation," said Kennedy.

The letter argues that gas with CCS would be likely to be cheaper than coal stations with the equipment fitted, making it a more affordable way of producing clean electricity,

Since Norway has recently cancelled a planned trial of the gas CCS technology, Britain could also be the first country in the world to build one.

The latest advice from the climate change committee, which will make its second report to parliament at the end of this month, is likely to meet resistance from the Association of Electricity Producers, whose chief executive David Porter suggested it was crucial to test gas-power CCS before deadlines were set to introduce it, and hinted that to demand the technology too soon might push energy prices much higher than necessary. He also said that a new EPS was unnecessary for gas because all plants had to operate within limits set by the European carbon trading scheme.

"There is a long list of gas-fired projects which are planned to replace coal, oil and nuclear plant which has to close in the next decade," said Porter. "It is vitally important that the huge investment required to build these power stations is not scared off."The Carbon Capture and Storage Association welcomed the focus on gas power, but urged the government not to replace a coal demo but to add another demonstration project for gas. "We absolutely support the development of CCS for gas generation, but this cannot be at the expense of de-carbonising coal generation," said Jeff Chapman, the group's chief executive.

There was a much warmer welcome from John Sauven, executive director of the vociferous anti-coal campaign group Greenpeace: "In the last decade it was coal that posed the great threat to our CO2 emissions targets. In the coming years it will be gas that drops into the cross-hairs of campaigners and politicians determined to fight climate change. New gas-fired power stations should only be built if they, like coal, can be zero-carbon by 2030."

According to analysis by the climate change committee, the cost of fitting CCS to coal and gas plants would be considerably higher than current generation, but lower than future unabated power stations because of rising carbon trading costs to energy producers. For gas the cost per megawatt hour is currently just under £70, in future with CCS it would be a bit less than £105 while without CCS it would be £115, calculates the committee. For coal the unit cost is currently about £60, rising to £115 with CCS and £160 without CCS, it says. The scenarios assume Defra's central scenario for gas prices in 2030.

In 2008, gas supplied nearly 47% of UK electricity generation, compared to nearly 34% from coal.