SUE SKINNER An international initiative to tackle global warming through changes to everyday lifestyles is to be led from Cambridgeshire.

SUE SKINNER

An international initiative to tackle global warming through changes to everyday lifestyles is to be led from Cambridgeshire.

The Lifestyle Project aims to help ordinary people use environmentally friendly technologies such as solar power to heat water, and other renewable energies.

The project, led by Cambridgeshire County Council, will seek to identify and tackle the barriers which currently prevent the widespread use of such technologies by householders.

At the same time, it will work with the construction industry to find greener ways to build houses and, with policy-makers at regional and national levels, to create policies which make it easier for people to live greener lives.

The council will join forces with Renewables East, which promotes the use of low-carbon energy solutions like biofuels, solar power and ground source heat pumps in the east of England, the Department for Environ-ment, Farming and Rural Affairs, as well as international partners based in Sweden and Germany.

The project, due to be launched next week, will also see the setting up of a centre of excellence in renewable energies in the county.

It coincides with a series of high-profile BBC programmes, including one presented by Sir David Attenborough, looking at climate change.

The council's international manager, Liz Blackshaw, said: "Climate change is one of the biggest issues we face today.

"It is high on the agenda of many governments around the world and is attracting lots of media coverage.

"It is really exciting that Cambridgeshire will lead on such an important project and one which could lead to the establishment of an internationally important centre of excellence right here in the county.

"This puts local people right at the heart of setting an example to the world.

"Quite simply the Lifestyle Project aims to help us all get access to greener ways of living and travelling so that they become part of our daily lives - something we do automatically but which adds to a big impact on tackling climate change."

A long-term plan for the eastern counties says that by 2010, 14 pc of the electricity used by the region should come from renewable sources.