Commenting on the new emissions target announced today by Ed Miliband, Greenpeace chief scientist Dr Doug Parr said:

"This is a hugely encouraging first move from the new Climate Change secretary. In a decade in power Labour has never adopted a target so ambitious, far-reaching and internationally significant as this. To meet it will require determined action from Gordon Brown and every one of his successors for the next four decades, hard choices will be made that will touch every Briton, but it can and must be done."

He continued:

"Ed Miliband obviously understands the urgency of the threat we face from climate change. He is absolutely right to say Britain should set an example to the rest of the world in tackling this issue, and we will support him wholeheartedly if the decisions he takes in the coming weeks and months genuinely reflect this ambition."

For more information, contact the Greenpeace press office on 0207 8658255

Reacting to the news that Ed Miliband has been appointed Secretary of State at a new Department for Energy and Climate, Greenpeace Executive Director John Sauven said:

"For the last ten years this government has dithered on climate change, offering us inspiring rhetoric but little in the way of real action. Bringing energy and climate together at last reflects the urgency of the threat we face from climate change."

"Hopefully Ed Miliband will champion efforts to boost renewable energy end energy efficiency, as part of a plan to create the green collar jobs that Britain has so far lost to our European neighbours. The first test of his credibility will be whether he stops the UK's first new coal fired power station in over thirty years at Kingsnorth in Kent.

"It's vital that the civil servants who blocked progress on renewables and energy efficiency for so long at the Department for Business are left where they are. Miliband's new team needs to bring fresh thinking and new ideas to the challenge of climate change. Central to this must be a new, low carbon economy based on green manufacturing and green jobs."