The Government has set out its long-awaited blueprint for addressing climate change, unveiling plans to set landmark legally-binding targets for cutting carbon dioxide emissions for the first time.

The landmark draft Climate Change Bill – described by the Prime Minister as a “revolutionary step” - proposes cutting emissions by 60 per cent by 2050, with plans for a system of statutory carbon budgets to be set at five-year intervals to help reach the target.

The proposals would also see a new independent monitoring body reporting to Parliament annually on progress towards meeting the objectives. While falling short of Conservative and green campaigners’ demands for annual emission targets – rejected by the Government as too rigid to make allowances for climate variations from year to year – a system of yearly reporting nonetheless marks a significant change by ministers.

But opposition politicians, while welcoming the proposals, have called for them to be strengthened further – reiterating calls for the binding targets to be annual.

The plans make Britain the first country to propose legislation setting binding limits on harmful carbon dioxide emissions as it steps up its campaign for a new global warming pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. Chancellor Gordon Brown urged the nation to get behind the efforts, in the same way it did with the Make Poverty History campaign.

Today’s publication comes after Mr Brown, the likely next Prime Minister, and Mr Cameron crossed swords over their green credentials – an issue set to feature as a key election battleground.

David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, said that today's Bill provided a “clear, credible and long-term framework” on how a “low carbon economy” could be achieved. In a written statement to the Commons, Mr Miliband said the Bill was “the first of its kind in any country”, and Britain was “leading by example”.

In a departure from more traditional means of launching a publication, Mr Miliband spoke about the proposals on a video featured on YouTube. In what was perhaps an appeal to the international audience of the video-sharing website, he called for worldwide interest in the Bill, saying climate change was a "global problem."

Tony Blair said the Bill was setting “an example to the rest of the world but, as important as anything else, it listens and responds to the strong desire on the part of the British people to take the lead and to keep it.”

The plans include granting the Government greater “enabling powers” which would allow it to introduce measures controlling emissions in a quicker and easier way. As well as the 2050 target on carbon emissions, a legally-binding interim goal of a 26 to 32 per cent reduction by 2020 is also proposed.

Earlier, Mr Brown said householders could play a key role in reducing carbon emissions through energy-saving measures, as he attacked Conservative proposals for taxes on air travel.

The Chancellor insisted he would not be “penalising” the holidaymaker, saying: “I am not going to penalise people who have got to travel for all sorts of reasons on domestic flights and I don’t think the Conservative proposals are properly costed or thought-out and I think people will be very angry about that.”

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