Gore appointed as environment adviser

Reinforcing his push for global action on climate change, the chancellor has appointed Al Gore as his adviser on environmental issues.

Since his defeat in the 2000 presidential election, the former US vice president has reinvented himself as a leading advocate of the need to tackle global warming.

His film 'An inconvenient truth' has warned of the risks of failing to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

Gordon Brown's move is a signal of the importance he attaches to leading an international effort on climate change.

"The truth is, we must tackle climate change internationally, or we will not tackle it at all," the chancellor said as he welcomed the Stern report into climate change. "Today I can say Britain will lead this global effort."

Brown said that tackling global warming created opportunities the greatest of which is "the opportunity of securing our planet's future for generations to come."

In a letter to European leaders, Brown also calls for cuts in carbon dioxide emissions of 30 per cent by 2020 and 60 per cent by 2050.

The EU's emissions trading scheme should be linked to those in California and elsewhere, he adds.

And Brown confirmed that there will be a Climate Change Bill to put CO2 reductions on a statutory basis.

He added that Britain will continue leading the effort to tackle climate change.