Interview: Arnold Schwarzenegger, US politician

HE ALWAYS said he would be back. Now Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, has revealed he is set to make an imminent return to US politics after his term of office in the Sunshine state ends next year.

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• Arnold Schwarzenegger was a moderate governor of the Sunshine state who had to make tough choices on energy and climate change targets. Photograph: Getty Images

In an interview with Scotland on Sunday, the Hollywood star turned politician said he would continue to influence US environmental policy even after his successor Jerry Brown takes over as head of America's greenest state in January.

It is thought Schwarzenegger, who has held office since 2003 and has been successful in making California 40 per cent more energy efficient than the US average, is likely to be awarded some kind of government role in Washington.

He said he was confident Brown would continue his work on climate change. "I will be working with him in the future," he revealed. "Just because I'm not governor any more does not mean I will not continue with my passion about working on job creation in California and a clean environment."

Schwarzenegger, who has just six weeks left in post, added: "I think the important thing for us is to bring our experience of California back to Washington.

"We are going to go back there very soon and talk to the leaders back there, talk to the Obama administration. I believe very strongly that even though they might not agree with everything about climate change, they do agree with being energy independent and not relying so much on foreign oil. There are a lot of things Republicans would agree on."

The Austrian-born actor also called for the Democrat and Republican parties to pull together to tackle the climate change, a source of discord.

"I have never looked at this as a party issue," he said. "When I ran for office in 2003, I made it very clear that we are going to protect the environment and that we will protect the environment and the economy simultaneously. There was great suspicion about a Republican making such promises."

He added: "I think the Obama administration is doing a great job trying to move the agenda forward.

"But what we really should do is bring the Democrats and Republicans together, bring Congress together to pass some of these (environmental] laws, stimulate the economy, bring jobs back, protect the health of the people and look at it as more than just climate change. You have to appeal to all voters. You don't have to make it Democrats and Republicans because everyone wants to create clean air."

It is thought the star could take up an advisory role in Washington DC, potentially working as an environment tsar for the government, run for office in the next US elections in 2012, or even be appointed to a peacemaker role in the footsteps of Joe Lieberman, an "independent Democrat" and chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee who admits to supporting Democrats on domestic policy and often Republicans on foreign and defence policy.

As a moderate Republican Schwarzenegger has been a popular politician. He would be a likely presidential candidate if his Austrian birth did not rule this out.

President Barack Obama looks set to have his ambitious climate change policies blocked by the new Congress following the election of a number of right-wing "Tea Party" candidates in the recent mid-term vote. Schwarzenegger, however, said he wanted to beat competition from environmentally advanced countries in Europe such as Scotland, as well as China, to make California - and the US - a global leader in renewable technology.

"The question is, where do we want to see this happen? Where do we want to see this explosion in green technology?" he said. "Should it be in China? Japan? South Korea? Europe? I want to see it in the US and that's why it is very important to have policies in place, so we can create jobs."

During his term as governor of California, the Terminator star has led the fight to pass the AB32 climate change law, which established a timetable to bring California into near compliance with the Kyoto Agreement, as well as setting renewable energy targets to 33 per cent by 2020 and defeating Proposition 23, which would have stopped the new targets coming into force until unemployment levels improved.

"Nothing is easy when you try to make a clear change," he added. "We've gone through this in California, we've battled for seven years. It's important to stay on it and stay with it.

"Change and reform is ugly. It's very, very tough to do. People would rather hang on to their status quo. We hope Washington is going to adopt some of our regulations as soon as possible."

Karen Douglas, chairwoman of governmental energy policy agency the California Energy Commission, said: "The governor has been an incredible leader in climate action and has helped put California on the map as a leader in climate action.

"Schwarzenegger's an incredibly energetic and talented and passionate leader. He will come forward to where his talents are best spent."