Tackling climate change post Copenhagen

This, despite the recent Copenhagen Climate Conference, which many perceived as a failure.

Miliband said: "Some people in the world may be in a moment of doubt of whether we'll actually tackle climate change but we've to look to Copenhagen which is the started point for the global perspective on where we are.

"At the end of February we had in the Copenhagen Accord 106 countries , covering 80 per cent of emissions.

"The previous agreement in Kyoto covered only 45 per cent of emissions.

"We've something the world has never had before which is an agreement covering developed and developing countries."

Miliband said that while he was disappointed that there was no 'pathway' to a legal treaty and a lack of targets for individual countries, there have been many positives since then.

This is especially true in developing countries such as China, he said.

"Don't believe some of the hype that everything stopped and we were not moving forward," said the minister.

"Not only does the Copenhagen Accord represent a big step forward but what is actually happening is people across the world are driving forward with the low carbon revolution.

"There's a race on and the Chinese who are understandably keen not to commit to things that will hinder their growth and development are powering forward with investment in low carbon."

The minister said one of the key objectives now was to talk about the positives of tackling climate change rather than the gloomy alternative.

He said that while the public must be warned about the dangers, they must also be shown the vision.

"The dream is about having home grown energy," he said. "The vision is a higher quality of life, high speed trains, electric cars and improved air quality. We can take people with us on this journey.

"It can be one of the top three issues on the election but on a certain basis. We've got a divided electorate on this issue.

"Ten per cent are motivated by the direct environmental argument we make, but the truth is it's a distant threat - distant in time and in impact - people think they can have little impact. It's not like an army massing on our borders.

"We must take climate change out of it's environmental box and talk about the things like the transport systems we can have."