Former transport secretary Stephen Byers has chaired the first meeting of an international taskforce on climate change.

The taskforce brought together three leading think tanks on Monday - the Institute for Public Policy Research in the UK, the Center for American Progress and the Australia Institute - and will report to governments in 2005 on how best to tackle the problem.

Other members include former CBI director general Adair Turner, environmentalist Jonathon Porritt and chairman of the inter-governmental panel on climate change, Dr Rajendra Pachauri.

The first meeting was held in Berkshire, while a second is planned for mid-November in either Washington or Sydney, at which a final consensus will be reached on policies to be included in a report, and submitted to Tony Blair and other heads of government in 2005.

"We have a responsibility to future generations to hand to them a planet that is habitable and rich in life," said Byers.

"Climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions from human activities threaten that objective. It is clear that tackling this problem is the over-riding environmental challenge of our age.

"The Kyoto Protocol was a milestone for the international community in taking the first step to address the danger which climate change poses. The taskforce will help safeguard and build on Kyoto by identifying new ways to secure international cooperation and support.

"For the future we need to find the means by which we can involve those countries that have not ratified or are not bound by Kyoto, so that climate change can be dealt with effectively over the long term.

"This will be a major challenge but it is one that the taskforce is confident it can meet."