Zac Goldsmith

David Cameron has made his first move on green issues by setting up a policy group to look at key environmental concerns.

The group will be chaired by ex-environment secretary John Gummer and will examine a series of what the new Conservative leader calls "quality of life" issues, including climate change, transport policy and energy.

Gummer was an agriculture minister in Margaret Thatcher's administration before serving as environment secretary from 1993-97 under John Major.

He is joined by Zac Goldsmith, the young founder of the Ecologist magazine who was recently accepted on to the Conservatives' approved candidates' list.

Cameron launched the new group at the London Wetland Centre where held discussions with members of Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace.

It is one of six policy groups which the new Tory leader intends to set up to help decide future party policy.

Speaking at the launch, Cameron said he "wanted to take green issues very seriously".

Environmental concerns such as countryside issues and problems in urban spaces should not be treated separately, he said, and he hoped the group could "look at all issues and come up with some answers".

Cameron pledged the group would be "incredibly open and transparent" to both environmental groups and to members of the public.

And he invited the groups present to contribute their ideas on green issues big and small.

Speaking earlier on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Cameron said tackling threats to the environment was a very complex issue which needed to be examined comprehensively.

He argued the Conservatives needed to do the "hard work" by taking 18 months to understand the challenges before announcing new policies.

"The real test will come in 18 months time when we have to show we are prepared to take the tough decisions necessary to meet the carbon reduction targets and other environmental challenges," he said.

Cameron said he believed in "green growth", arguing that environmentally-friendly measures do not have to stifle the economy.

And he suggested using more biofuels was one way of reducing pollution from cars.

A new independent carbon audit office is also proposed under the plans to measure progress on meeting the target of cutting carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.

The body would be an "important constraint on government" to "assess how things are going on carbon".

The Tory leader has assembled what he terms a "strong green team" with Peter Ainsworth, appointed on Thursday as the new shadow environment secretary, and Oliver Letwin as policy director.

Letwin had already started working with the Liberal Democrats on policies to tackle climate change in his former shadow environmental secretary role.

And Cameron said he too wants to co-operate with the government.

"We are not going to do this in a four-to five-year political time period," he said.

"We need political parties to actually agree about some of the steps we have to make about other measures...

"We say this is an inter-generational challenge. This takes more than one parliament.

"Lets try and agree some of the steps that are necessary to take this out of politics."