Opinion: Get the green issue right or face more legislation.(CBI boss Richard Lambert tells advertising agencies to pay attention towards the climate change)(Viewpoint essay)

As if the besieged ad industry hasn't got enough on its plate with the simmering controversies over obesity and binge- drinking, the CBI boss, Richard Lambert, has tossed it another hot potato. What, he asked agencies, advertisers and media owners, are they going to do about climate change?

Amid the furore over snack food and drinks advertising and the industry's alleged role in fuelling Britain's drink problem, this issue has come up on the blind side.

At first, it might be hard to see why it has the potential to do enormous damage to the business. After all, aren't the country's big corporations falling over themselves to trumpet their green credentials? And will they not be expecting their agencies to communicate this commitment?

So, with big business going green and agencies willing to follow, why was Lambert worried enough to warn the Advertising Association: 'If you don't get your responses to the climate change challenge right, you may find the barricades will be down and the barbarians flooding over the walls.'

Lambert's point - and it's a disturbing one - is that the climate change issue is creating a climate of confusion. And one in which advertising will again become a soft target.

Already the issue is throwing up all kinds of ethical dilemmas. Lambert cites the case of Africa, which must find new ways ...