Gordon Brown today increased the pressure on the United States to cut its carbon emissions, saying that there was no need to hide behind the argument that tackling climate change damaged the economy.

The Chancellor, addressing the influential Roundtable of Energy and Environment Ministers in London - which included a representative from Washington - said that he believed British industry was doing well at balancing economic growth with protecting the environment.

He said that the UK's greenhouse gas emissions had stabilised at 1997 levels, showing that progress could be made without damaging industry and jobs. Now the Government was aiming to slash carbon dioxide by 60 per cent by 2050.

He said: "This is not to be complacent. We know that we have much further to go. But it is to point to one of the crucial lessons of the UK's and other countries' experience over the last eight years - that climate change policy is compatible with strong economic performance.

"But at the same time we have to acknowledge that no country can solve this problem on its own.

"The UK is responsible for only 2 per cent of global emissions of greenhouse gases, so our actions will have little impact on climate change unless they are part of a concerted international effort.

"We will need the cooperation of all countries with significant energy needs and emission levels if - for the benefit of all of us - we are going to tackle this global challenge comprehensively and cost effectively. In a globally competitive economy a multilateral approach is the only way forward."

The Chancellor's calls for a united global strategy have, however, so far fallen on deaf ears at the White House. The world's biggest polluter is still refusing to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol on cutting emissions which came into force last month, saying that US jobs are more important than concerns about the environment.

James Connaughton, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, today re-affirmed US objections to Kyoto, saying its targets were "unreasonable."

He said: "The target given to the United States was so unreasonable in our ability to meet it that the only way we could have met it was to shift energy intensive manufacturing to other countries. That has economic effects, that also has job effects."

Britain has made tackling climate change and tackling Third World poverty the twin priorities of its presidency of the Group of Eight industrialised nations (G8) this year.

Mr Brown told the international Roundtable that savings from innovation and improved efficiency could cover the cost of developing environmentally-sustainable methods of production.

He said: "If our economies are to flourish, if global poverty is to be banished, and if the well-being of the world's people enhanced - not just in this generation but in succeeding generations - we must make sure we take care of the natural environment and resources on which our economic activity depends.

"And we now have sufficient evidence that human-made climate change is the most far-reaching - and almost certainly the most threatening - of all the environmental challenges facing us.

"I believe that climate change is an issue for finance and economic ministries as much as for energy and environmental ones - and why all these parts of individual national governments - and indeed all governments internationally - must work together to tackle it."

Mr Brown said that a range of environmental issues - including soil erosion, falling sea stocks, global warming and pollution - threaten future economic activity and growth worldwide.

He said: "And it is the poorest members of the community - those most dependent on the natural world for their survival, and those with the fewest resources to buy their way out of unhealthy environments - that suffer the most."

In a statement apparently aimed directly at the White House, he added: "Climate change is an issue of justice as much of economic development. It is a problem caused by the industrialised countries, whose effects will disproportionately fall on developing countries."

The parts of his speech that stressed the need for new technology to cut emissions at least appear to chime with the prevailing US outlook.

Mr Connaughton said: "We are trying now to find a portfolio in which three words are important: technology, technology and technology."

Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, said: "We very much welcome the Chancellor’s recognition that it is impossible to separate the environment from the economy and his view that in the long term we must protect the environment in order to protect the economy.

"However, the Chancellor needs to come forward with specific measures that can help this country reduce its emissions in the short term. While we welcome the UK’s international leadership, too little has been done at home to take control and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

"The Chancellor’s Budget this week is an opportunity for him to put some specifics behind the broad points he made."

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