Environmentalists have this week praised the Prime Minister, for his stance on fule prices.

Jane Howie, co-ordinator of Keighley's Friends of the Earth, says she supports the Government's taxation policy claiming it is crucial to keep fuel prices high to combat climate change and to meet the 20 per cent carbon dioxide reduction target promised in Labour's manifesto.

She says: "Businesses and consumers to realise the consequences of global climate change and the need to drastically cut back on the use of fossil fuels.

"It is no longer a question of whether the Earth's climate will change, but rather when, where and by how much."

She says the technology is already available to move over to a fossil free economy and adds: "All that is lacking is a political will to develop it."

Policy director of Greenpeace Stephen Tindale says his organisation agrees wholeheartedly with the government and warns of the need for further rises in the price of petrol.

He says: "Unless we break our addiction to fossil fuels, extreme weather events like the floods in Mozambique will massively increase and the Arctic ice sheet will vanish in forty years.

The climate crisis gives us no choice but to reduce our use of petrol and diesel. He says people should not be campaigning for lower fuel prices but should be urging politicians and vehicle manufacturers to develop a "hydrogen economy" using renewable energy sources.