David Cameron and Gordon Brown will on Monday set out sharply conflicting visions of tackling climate change, with the Conservatives proposing a raft of new taxes to penalise air travel while the chancellor prefers a carrot rather than stick approach.

The Conservative ideas, including higher taxes for frequent flyers, will be outlined at a London conference attended by business leaders including Sir Terry Leahy of Tesco, Stanley Fink, chief executive of Man Group, and James Murdoch of BSkyB.