Households across the country are to receive a “green pledge card” and leaflet from the government about how they can help to combat climate change and do more for the environment.

Families will be encouraged to buy energy-efficient light bulbs, drive their cars less, cut down on short-haul flights, recycle their household waste, properly turn off televisions and computers, buy more seasonal and locally produced food — and even consider adopting changes to their diet.

The pledge card, modelled on Labour’s general election motif, will set out what the government is doing to save energy and tackle climate change. But on the reverse it will set out what ministers expect of the public, listing five areas where individuals can help protect the environment.

The move comes after a Whitehall review concluded that the government’s message on climate change was being “diluted” by other organisations and that ministers needed to “simplify” their message about what people could do to help.

The plans are being put forward by David Miliband, the environment secretary, who is tipped to be given the added responsibility for energy policy under a Gordon Brown government.

A source close to Miliband said: “This is about climate-change awareness and engagement with the public. We have a whole strategy about how we can change people’s behaviour on the environment.”

Miliband is under pressure from some Blairites to stand against the chancellor for the leadership when Tony Blair announces he is to step down, expected to be in about a month’s time.

He is said to have drawn inspiration for his pledge card from an initiative that helps local clubs, societies, community groups and voluntary organisations become more “future friendly”.

The Every Action Counts scheme is supported by Miliband’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

On its website it also outlines five ways in which people can help improve their environment: “save energy”, “travel wisely”, “shop ethically”, “save our resources” and “care for your area”. The pledge card and leaflet being sent out, possibly as early as the end of this month, will have similar expectations of members of the public.

Miliband’s move comes after the government’s policy review on the environment and energy concluded that individuals need to do more and need to be encouraged to do more.

The minister is also shortly to launch a government “carbon calculator” website, which will allow people to find out the amount of greenhouse gases produced by activities such as driving a particular car or taking a flight.

He has already mooted issuing every Briton with a “carbon-credit card”, which he predicts would be the world’s biggest loyalty card.

Miliband has also said more focus is needed on cutting carbon emissions from homes, citing government plans to make all new houses carbon-neutral by 2016.

A paper produced for the review praised a recent campaign by the department for transport, Act on CO2, which encouraged motorists to “drive smarter”, in a way that improves fuel consumption and therefore reduces carbon emissions.

The paper, dated March 16, states that there is a need to “actively engage with citizens — raising individual awareness, converting that awareness into action, and building understanding of, and support for, its policies on climate change, by simplifying the climate-change message and shaping it around a short list of simple actions.

“Some of the measures necessary to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in the UK are likely to be contentious and, at least in the short run, putting the right incentives in place simply may not be politically feasible (for example a rapid move to full and efficient carbon pricing on home heating or industrial fuels).”

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