GORDON Brown has finally taken over as Prime Minister, a new job with numerous daunting challenges. The biggest of all these has to be tackling climate change. Ten years ago Tony Blair stood in his shoes at a time when the new Labour Government made bold

GORDON Brown has finally taken over as Prime Minister, a new job with numerous daunting challenges. The biggest of all these has to be tackling climate change.

Ten years ago Tony Blair stood in his shoes at a time when the new Labour Government made bold promises about cutting greenhouse gas emissions. But these promises were not followed up and Ministers have now admitted that they will not meet targets that were included in three of their election manifestos.

What we must do is help the new Government to support green solutions by making it cheaper and easier to act. Mr Brown will take over responsibility for a proposed new law - the Climate Change Bill - which the Government has already launched into Parliament.

If he's serious about tackling climate change, he must ensure this law is up to the job. The current bill doesn't go far enough and it doesn't even take into account most emissions from aeroplane flights. Worse still, the current proposal is to monitor targets every five years, which will nearly always span more than one term of Government. This will make it easier for politicians to blame preceding Governments for any missed targets.

Mr Brown really must be Mr Green. For a start, he must ensure the Climate Change Bill leads to cuts in all our carbon dioxide emissions of at least three per cent each year.

REBECCA NARRACOTT, St Ann's Lane, Godmanchester