Hosted by FoE Director Tony Juniper, the minister took questions from the capacity crowd, but began the debate by correcting a chronological continuity error in the former US Vice President’s cinematic presentation. It would appear that Mr Miliband did not believe the USA influenced the French Revolution.

Nitpicking aside, the 41-year old politician had obviously been impressed by the film enough to announce that the Government would be sending a DVD copy of the film to every school in the country along with accompanying educational literature.

When questioned about restrictive planning regulations over the erection of home wind turbines (currently far more stringent than those concerning satellite dishes), Mr Miliband took the opportunity to announce that from 1st October this year such restrictions would be severely relaxed.

Another question raised the issue of the banning of the sale of incandescent light bulbs - an initiative recently announced by both the State of California and Australia. Mr Miliband said that such legislation would eventually be implemented by all 27 member states of the EU but was vague when pushed by Mr Juniper for a timetable for such enforcement, proffering only that this would happen “as quickly as possible”.

The minister was also questioned about nuclear power, to which he towed the party line saying that the UK’s nuclear facilities saved 150 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. Mr Miliband said: “Nuclear power – a quick fix, no. Part of the energy mix, yes it is.”

The minister said he would ask Mr Juniper to pick one of the evening’s questions that he will open to debate on his website blog from today. See below for link details.

Click here for David Miliband’s blog page

Click here for Friends of the Earth’s Big Ask campaign