Gordon Brown confirmed today that he had recruited a new environmental adviser: Al Gore, the former American Vice-President who has become one of the world's most respected, connected and visible advocates for green politics.

Since losing the presidential election to George W. Bush nearly six years ago, Mr Gore has gradually assembled a portfolio of jobs and contacts that stretch from television to banking, from technology to academia, all in the name of saving the planet from the worst effects of climate change.

This summer, he was seen criss-crossing the globe, promoting his documentary and book, An Inconvenient Truth, which spelled out the dangers and opportunities posed by the looming catastrophe of the greenhouse effect.

The 45th Vice-President of the United States has also taught on climate change at Columbia University and UCLA in California and remains a visiting professor at Middle Tennessee State University. In 2004, with David Blood, former chief executive of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, he set up Generation Investment Management, a green and socially minded investment fund.

He is the founder and chairman of Current TV, a cable television network that encourages its viewers to send films they have made to its website. The films which receive the most votes on its website are then broadcast to 30 million homes in America. Mr Gore serves on the board of Apple, the computer giant, and is a senior adviser to Google.

But he is more than just a busy and influential spokesman. Mr Gore, despite what some have criticised as his clunky, wooden manner, is a cultish figure in environmental politics. In 1980, as a young congressman opposed to President Ronald Reagan's plans to cut funding for environmental research, he organised the first American congressional hearings on the subject.

David Miliband, Britain's Environment Secretary, cited Mr Gore as an inspiration in a recent entry on his ministerial blog, describing his dedication to the environment "humbling" and calling one of his books, Earth in the Balance, "the best book I have ever read by a politician".

But Mr Gore's appeal is not universal. In the US, he remains a divisive, partisan figure, and no friend of the Bush Administration. At 58, he remains young enough to harbour political ambitions, and although he has repeatedly denied any intentions to run for the presidency in 2008, there are plenty of Democratic supporters who would welcome it he ran for the White House, especially if Hillary Clinton is the only other serious candidate.

Earlier this month, Mr Gore stepped back into domestic politics, making his first campaign advertisement since his election defeat in 2000, as part of the drive to install "Proposition 87", a measure to impose new taxes on California's oil companies, into the state's legislation next month. He has also been a strong critic of the Iraq war and called the Bush Administration "a renegade band of rightwing extremists who got hold of power".

Today, the Chancellor stressed the international dimension to the challenge of climate change, saying that Britain must set an example to the planet, and to the US, by creating "an economy that is both pro-growth and pro-green". The hiring of Mr Gore to help the shape that economy will give Mr Brown's campaign plenty of star quality, but it will also have raised the eyebrows of the Bush Administration.

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