In one of the few definite policies for business from the Tory party since David Cameron became leader, George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, said that the party would look at a tax designed to “pay as you burn, not pay as you earn”.

The Tories want to replace the present climate change levy, which taxes industrial pollution by the amount of energy used and by industry type, with a tax that will fall more heavily on the biggest polluters. The party believes that the present system is unfair because it charges £30 per tonne of carbon emissions for gas but only £16 for coal.

Mr Osborne told the CBI that a new carbon tax “would replace the climate change levy, which the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution calls a ‘blunt instrument’ because it is based on energy use, not carbon emissions”.

Richard Lambert, Director-General of the CBI, said: “A carbon tax might be part of the toolbox to tackle climate change. However, we would rather see a price for carbon set through an international trading system than a finance minister trying to prescribe a price. If a tax is introduced, it should be revenue-neutral, not another money-raising measure for the Exchequer.”

Mr Osborne said that any gains from a carbon tax would be used to offset other taxes.

Tony Blair told the CBI later that on climate change Britain should be “at the front of the pack, but not so far ahead we disappear out of sight”. Mr Blair said that security of supply was becoming pressing as the UK prepared to move from producing 80 to 90 per cent of its own energy to having to import the same proportion. Mr Blair repeated his belief that nuclear had to play a big part in the future energy mix.

In a debate on energy security and climate change, Tom Crotty, chairman of the chlorine producer Ineos ChlorVinyls, said that spiralling energy costs had led to the loss of 100,000 job losses over the past 18 months. Included in those losses were the closure of 13 glassmakers and 11 papermills. Ineos ChlorVinyls, which had to halt production temporarily last year because of higher energy costs, has 80 per cent of its costs tied up in energy. Mr Crotty said that energy policy had failed industry: “The true cost comes in lost business, lost jobs and lost income.”

The CBI is to lobby the Government for greater certainty over energy security, diversity and climate change. It is to establish a taskforce of senior executives to suggest policy to the Government to ensure a better energy framework for business.

The CBI has criticised the Government for failing to get to grips sufficiently with energy in its last White Paper, which focused on renewables but offered only aspirations to boost green energy.