David Cameron has abdicated responsibility on the environment and turned Britain into a "laggard" on climate change, Ed Miliband has claimed.
The Labour leader accused the Prime Minister of jettisoning the issue when it became less "fashionable" and warned that Conservative MPs were "flirting with climate change denial".
Mr Cameron urged Britain to "vote blue, go green" before the last general election, but was later reported to have privately said that ministers must ditch the "green crap".
Writing in the Independent on Sunday ahead of a United Nations climate change conference in Peru next week, he said: "The leadership and political consensus we once offered the world have been replaced by dither and denial.
"Ahead of these talks in Lima, the Prime Minister has ignored pleas from the Foreign Office to raise climate change in his recent meetings the Chinese leaders."
He added: "The environment may not be as fashionable an issue now as it was when David Cameron attached a wind turbine to his house. But I believe tackling climate change is the most important thing I can do in politics for the long-term future of my kids and their generation.
"And I will not leave those principles behind at the door to Downing Street. That is the choice the country will face at the next election: a Conservative government that ... makes Britain a laggard on climate change, or a Labour government that leads."
