Puttnam: Give communities help to fight climate change

The Government will struggle to reach tough targets on cutting greenhouse gases unless it gets local communities to do their bit, a Labour peer warned today.

Lord Puttnam, chairman of the Climate Change Bill committee, said that to reduce emissions by the new target of 80per cent by 2050, groups of people could come together to produce energy and grow their own food.

The Government has already urged householders to switch to low-energy bulbs and recycle but Lord Puttnam told the Evening Standard: "We need commitment from big business and appropriate fiscal measures that empower individuals and community groups to become part of the solution."

He said projects in an innovation competition run by the National Endowment for Science and Technology should be expanded across London and the South.

"The ideas range from community renewables schemes to the production of local food in urban areas," he said. One example was a project in Kentish Town where teenagers grow vegetables on commercial rooftops which they then sell to local restaurants.