Industry must deliver on green promises: UK's Brown

By Gerard Wynn

LONDON (Reuters) - Industry must follow through on climate change commitments despite a threatened economic slowdown, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and heir to the throne Prince Charles said on Thursday.

Speaking to business leaders in London, Brown said cutting greenhouse gases was compatible with economic growth and urged companies to deliver on green promises.

"I think you understand that, even in these uncertain economic times, your reputation and success depends on the investments you make not just in new products, but in the communities you serve and in the environment that surrounds these communities," he said.

He was speaking on the day Anglo-Dutch oil company Royal Dutch Shell Plc announced it was selling its stake in one of the world's largest planned offshore wind farms, east of London, in a move expected to delay the project.

Brown said clean energy, water and waste industries will be worth as much as the global aerospace industry by 2010 and could employ more than a million Britons within two decades.

Shell's move drew criticism from the government:

"I have to say the news that Shell wishes to sell its stake is very disappointing," said Environment Minister Hilary Benn.

Climate issues commanded headlines in 2007, when the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, a leading climate change campaigner, shared the Nobel Peace Prize.