The Labour Party is proposing that a committee of experts be set up to draft a Bill on climate change and an annual parliamentary report on the subject.

In June the government had appointed a Climate Change Committee to draw up a policy on the issue, focusing on managing energy demand. Asked how the party's proposal fits in with the already existing committee, Leo Brincat, Labour's spokesman for the environment, said he believed the committee was purely advisory.

The committee, he said, was not engaging stakeholders, and it only mentioned "consultation at a later stage". What Labour was advocating was involving stakeholders from the very beginning.

Referring to an article in yesterday's edition of The Times, titled Climate Change Committee To Focus On Reducing Waste Of Energy, Mr Brincat said chairman David Spiteri Gingell "does not mention in concrete terms how the committee will recommend that the government meets its targets in the agreed period of time".

The committee Mr Brincat proposes should be jointly established by the government and the opposition, and the party is awaiting the government's reaction to this proposal, the Labour spokesman said.

The committee should be a leading think-tank on climate change, providing ongoing feedback and "bombarding" the government with ideas.

The government ought to follow in the footsteps of other EU countries and consider drafting a Bill, in the form of a White Paper on climate change.

The White Paper could then be discussed with all stakeholders, particularly those in the environmental sector. It would then bind everyone, in particular the government, with Parliament acting as a watchdog. Mr Brincat underscored the importance of an annual Parliamentary report that would detail the goals achieved.