Gordon Brown faces calls to introduce legislation to protect Britain’s fish stocks for future generations as he makes his first dedicated speech on the environment today.

Overfishing was singled out in a major environmental audit last month as a priority that needed to be addressed or billions of people worldwide would be left facing food shortages in the coming decades.

In Britain, the Wildlife Trusts, which embraces 47 local trusts, has cited the need for legally protected conservation zones to be created in British waters, which contain 44,000 species. A draft Marine Bill designed to protect marine life against profligate fishing was mentioned in the Queen’s Speech, but despite crossparty support, the Government does not plan to introduce it until next year.

David Nussbaum, the chief executive of WWF-UK, told The Times last night that he could not understand the reasons for the delay. “The Marine Bill is desperately needed and its importance for marine life and the communities that depend on it cannot be overstated,” he said. “Current legislation is a hotch-potch of measures, some of which date back to the beginning of the last century and are incapable of meeting demands of the current use of resources in our seas.”

The Bill proposes to introduce conservation areas where threatened species such as cod could breed and replenish their numbers. “Everyone recognises the need for action, we can’t understand why the Government sees a need to wait,” Mr Nussbaum said.

As well as depleting fish stocks, the charity estimates that 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises are killed by fishermen every year.

The fourth Global Environment Outlook: Environment for Development report, commissioned for the United Nations, said that species were being forced into extinction at a rate 100 times faster than any in fossil records.

The rate of loss was considered so serious that it was described as the sixth major extinction event in the Earth’s history.

The report’s authors said: “Marine fish catches are being maintained only by fishing ever further offshore and at deeper levels, devastating some species very quickly, and increasingly further down the food chain.”

The report pointed out that 60 per cent of the world population live within 65 miles of the coast and that many were likely to be forced to move because of sea-level rises from global warming over the coming century.

At an event organised by the WWF in London today, Mr Brown is expected to focus on the wider problem of climate change and state that Britain can be “a world leader in the new low carbon global economy”.

A report from the International Energy Agency, released last week suggests that on current trends, average temperatures could rise by up to 4C and average sea levels by 60cm by the end of the century.

Scientists predict such changes could have a catastrophic effect on the world’s climate and wildlife — but Mr Brown is also expected to say that climate change presents “a huge economic opportunity” for Britain.

The target to halve global carbon emissions by 2050 will require a technological revolution in clean energy, but building such a low-carbon economy will mean developing new technologies, industries and jobs.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Please help: maimed children of war want their lives back
• Unlocking the cruellest prison
• Charles named in £81m court battle