UK's Brown sets 'green' example on climate change

LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) British Finance Minister Gordon Brown said he and other people in authority should lead by example when it comes to tackling climate change, noting that he rarely flew overseas for fun and liked to drive a modest car.

Brown, widely tipped to succeed Prime Minister Tony Blair when he steps down later this year, also stressed the need for all countries to work together to reduce global warming, saying this was his top priority.

His comments late on Thursday came after Prime Minister Tony Blair incurred the wrath of environmentalists this week by saying he would be reluctant to give up long-haul holiday flights in the interests of saving the planet.

''I don't think in the modern world any top-down solutions or any sort of pulling levers works anymore unless there is individual and social responsibility involved as well,'' Brown told Sky News television in a debate on climate change.

''In other words you have got to take people with you and therefore I think you have got to show by your actions that you are not only doing what you expect other people to do but you can actually make a difference by these actions,'' he said.

Asked if he offset his carbon emissions incurred through travel, Brown said: ''I don't do actually at the moment very much international travel for leisure it is mostly for business.'' He added: ''We do offset, the Treasury offsets, parliament offsets.'' Brown, who is married with two children, detailed how he tried to be careful with his private energy consumption.

''I generally use a smaller car,'' he said. ''What I try to do as an ordinary citizen is compost, is energy efficiency, insulation, all these different things.'' He continued: ''We've got our personal responsibility. All of us should think of the consequences of our actions.'' GLOBAL CHALLENGE As well as individual efforts, it was vital for governments to cooperate and hammer out a new global agreement for climate change to replace the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012, Brown said.

''I think over the next year we are going to have to work very hard at that so that all countries see the benefits of being part of a global system.'' He also repeated a call for the World Bank to give loans and grants to poorer countries to improve their energy efficiency.

Brown was speaking in a televised debate alongside Shell UK Chairman James Smith and -- via satellite link -- European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and other experts.

Barroso said confronting climate change was an economic and security issue as well as environmental. ''We have to act now.

The costs of non-action are really immense,'' he told Sky.

The European Commission presented an ambitious policy to fight climate change on Wednesday, challenging the world to follow Europe's lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Smith, for his part, insisted that energy giant Royal Dutch Shell was determined to be part of the solution.

He predicted that carbon-emitting fossil fuels would remain a crucial part of the energy mix this century. ''But what we need to do is respond with new technologies to make the fossil fuels what I call cleaner and greener,'' Smith said.

REUTERS PDM RAI1339