The Prime Minister, speaking at the United Nations in New York, said climate change was a “terrible injustice” which was hitting the world’s most vulnerable nations hardest.
Mr Brown has already proposed a 100 billion dollars (£61 billion) international package to help the world’s developing nations shift to “green” technologies as part of a deal to cut global carbon emissions.
But in opening remarks yesterday to a UN working group on the financing of an agreement, he said that of the 100 billion dollar total, 30 billion dollars would be needed specifically for the poorest and most vulnerable countries.
“Climate change is a terrible injustice - it has been caused almost entirely by the richest countries, but its earliest and most damaging effects will fall - and are already falling - on the poorest,” he said.
The working group was part of a climate change summit called by UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon ahead of crucial climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.
Earlier this week Mr Brown offered to go to the summit himself to try to help push through an agreement amid growing concern among officials that the prospects for a deal are slipping away.
One official travelling with the Prime Minister said the issues involved were so complex, they could only be resolved at the highest level.
“It is too important to be left to officials, it can only be done by leaders,” he said.
Mr Brown will highlight the issue again today when he addresses the UN General Assembly as one of the key challenges facing the world alongside the economy, terrorism, nuclear proliferation and poverty.
The official said while no deal was expected in New York, it was crucial the leaders attending realised just how important the issue was.
“This is not the point at which a deal will be done. This is where the leaders look each other in the eye and say that a deal has to be done,” he said.
Mr Brown warned today that success at Copenhagen could not be taken for granted and urged fellow world leaders to throw their weight behind a deal.
In an article in the New York Times, he stressed the importance of an international climate agreement not only on the environment, but also on the prospects for economic growth, jobs and prosperity.
“Progress is too slow and a deal now hangs in the balance,” warned Mr Brown. “But failure will increase the threat not only of humanitarian and ecological catastrophe but also of economic decline.
“Investment in energy efficiency and low-carbon energy sources will help drive economic growth over the next decade - as well as reduce dependence on imported oil and enhance energy security.
“Millions of jobs stand to be created as this investment expands - the low-carbon sector is now larger than defence and aerospace combined. But it is vital that we give confidence to such investment through a new international climate agreement.
“This will not be possible without the co-operation of developing countries. For this reason, Britain has suggested a program of 100 billion US dollars a year by 2020, financed by wealthier countries and the private sector, to help poorer nations develop low-carbon economies.
“We must move toward resolving the issues that remain before Copenhagen. If it is necessary to secure agreement, I will personally go to Copenhagen to achieve it. I will be urging my fellow leaders to do the same.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article