A greener world from the ground up

John Prescott with a group of students at Chongqing University

It was good to see the Guardian report that China is now considering emission targets as part of its package of measures for the climate change negotiations now under way and to be concluded at Copenhagen in December.

It did not come as a surprise to me as I only just returned from my 13th visit to China last Thursday. My five-day visit to Chongqing – the world's largest city with 32 million people – was leading a Yorkshire delegation to discuss the implementation of the recently agreed memorandum of understanding between our regions, signed by our prime minister and Premier Wen Jiabao in their summit last January.

Its purpose was to increase co-operation, research and investment between Yorkshire and Chongqing, as both have experienced similar industrial developments with environmental degradation from coal, steel, textiles, ship building, agriculture, ports and shipping.

Britain and Yorkshire's achievements in cleaning up our rivers, purifying our air and having an advanced environmental regulatory framework to reduce carbon emissions are of great interest to Chongqing and China.

China has now decided to switch the emphasis from its rapidly growing eastern coastal areas to cities like Chongqing in the western part of the country.

The aim is to transform it from an old industrial city into a modern low-carbon city. This is a further indication of China's desire to contribute to a global solution on carbon emissions. But it is not made easy with Chongqing being a major coal-producing area.

Yorkshire has a much-reduced coal industry, though is about to reopen a mothballed pit to fuel power stations. However, it has a wealth of experience in the mining industry – in safety, training, community regeneration, carbon sequestration and clean coal technology. Co-operation at this regional level is of major interest to the Chinese.

This is a major change from the usual national agreements on co-operation to arrangements on a regional level that offer more targeted and relevant support. It's also a small but important step on the road to finding a global solution for climate change which will and must include coal as part of any energy policy whether in the UK, China, America or any developing country.

The UK is one of the very few countries to have achieved its Kyoto targets. It has enjoyed a decade of sustainable growth, while still cutting its carbon emissions.

It was the first to develop carbon capping and trading with the most sophisticated environmental statutory framework. Yes, it still has an awful lot more to do and I'm sure tomorrow's budget will see us move closer towards a low-carbon economy. Fittingly it's being delivered on Earth Day.

Nevertheless the big challenge is to secure a universal agreement for climate change at Copenhagen. 2009 is clearly going to be the most significant year for economic and environmental change. The UK has a unique opportunity to lead the world in this change as it has done in the global financial crisis. I passionately believe a good co-operative relationship between the UK and China is a prerequisite for that.

As one of the main neogotiators at Kyoto, I can say the treaty would not have been successfully concluded without China. It persuaded the Group 77 of developing nations at Kyoto to support the deal which only really applied to developed countries.

However, the successor to the Kyoto agreement will have to be fundamentally different as it must now apply to all nations. It must recognise that the criteria to apply to emissions must take account of the state of a nation's industrial development and the size of its population.

This will mean that rich developed countries within the overall framework of carbon emission reduction will have to carry the burden of cuts so that we can allow developing counties to continue to grow and reduce the number of nearly 3 billion people living in poverty.

Of course new technology such as clean development mechanisms and carbon capture storage, along with the acceptance of the scientific evidence of climate change, will effectively herald in a new kind of world order.

The UK has a great opportunity to bring together the global financial reforms now under way with the fundamental changes arising from the climate change agreement. The Council of Europe's environment committee, chaired by my colleague Alan Meale, with myself as its rapporteur, has the remit to monitor the climate change negotiations. That's why we're holding our own conference involving 60 countries across Europe and Africa in September to ensure we pave the way for the deal at Copenhagen.

Nick Stern's excellent work on the economic consequences of global warming clearly shows that economic prosperity and climate change are two sides of the same coin.

Tomorrow's budget will hopefully make this clear. But I'm not convinced that we've really begun to educate the public as to the consequences of climate change – or our young people, who need to understand that decisions today will fundamentally change their quality of life in 20 years time.

I personally think the excellent Age of Stupid film should be shown in every school. I've even given a copy to the chancellor to watch and am currently arranging a screening of the film in the Council of Europe.

So in conclusion, while it might seem a small thing, the agreement between Chongqing and Yorkshire is an essential part of decisions that will need to be taken at global, national, regional and local level.

The Age of Stupid, when countries consumed without a thought about the global environmental consequences, is coming to an end.

We're all in this together now.