Friends of the Earth said that the national strategy and legislation to fight climate change should have gone hand in hand.

The draft strategy on climate change was launched on Thursday but a Private Member's Bill moved by Labour MP Leo Brincat, proposing legislation on the subject, was shot down by the government in Parliament that evening.

FOE said it will be analysing the national strategy and submitting its recommendations. However, as with any other report, this would be fairly useless unless a sound implementation structure was imposed and, in this case, it should be nothing less than a Bill, it said.

The environmental organisation recognised that the path to legislating climate change remained open, even though the government did not support Mr Brincat's motion, which would have brought about change sooner.

It urged politicians to work together and forget their political differences on issues as important as climate change.

"One should realise that the government's report and the motion moved by the opposition should have complemented each other to bring about a sense of collective leadership," it said.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party said it was disappointed that Mr Brincat's Bill was not approved, adding that the government's amendment moved in the House would not reach the goals in the fight against climate change. However, it would nevertheless analyse the strategic report.

Mr Brincat on Thursday accused the government of lacking the political will and commitment to legislate on climate change.

The amendment proposed by the government was to urge the House to accept the 87 proposals made in the draft strategy.