A BOOM in renewable energy, zero carbon homes and

alternatives to cars is needed in the South West if the region

is to avoid climate change disaster, an action plan has

insisted.

Influential regional bodies have promised to dramatically

reduce the amount of carbon emissions generated by buildings,

transport and industry – the major contributors to the South

West's carbon footprint.

Signatories of the region's first Climate Change Action Plan

are also preparing for the increased possibility of extreme

weather events such as the flash flooding that devastated the

Cornish village of Boscastle four years ago.

Sir Simon Day, chairman of the South West Regional Assembly,

one of five organisations behind the plan, said: "We are taking

seriously the immense challenge that confronts us, which is

probably the most important issue of the 21st century."

The South West Regional Development Agency, Government

Office for the South West, the Environment Agency and Natural

England have all signed-up.

But environmentalists questioned why the plan stopped short

of setting a region-wide target for a reduction in carbon

emissions. Aviation has also been discounted.

Instead, efforts in the South West will feed into the

government's goal of enforcing a steep decrease in carbon

emissions of 60 per cent by 2050. The seven-county-wide region

contributes 8 per cent of the UK's total carbon emissions.

The authors of the plan argue that regional policymakers

have limited control over many decisions which affect the

production of greenhouse gases, such as central government

investment in highways.

Instead, the action plan intends to "build momentum" among

regional organisations, and in turn district and county

councils and communities, over the next two years.

Mark Robins, chairman of the regional assembly's climate

change task group, said the significance of the action plan was

that it represented a serious pledge from major players.

He added that they should be brought to book if they fall

short of a series of individual measurements, such as

increasing the number of councils to publish their own climate

change strategy.

Mr Robins went on: "It would be very good if people held

these agencies to task if, in a year's time, they had not made

any progress.

"The public's appetite for positive action on climate change

is great and it is vital that action at a regional level

connects to and takes account of the groundswell of action

already happening within our communities."

Among a battery of tasks it has set down for the next two

years, the action plan aims to increase insulation in the

existing housing stock and slash the private sector's carbon

footprint. It also wants sustainable transport plans, such as

car-sharing schemes and greater investment in buses and trains,

to be commonplace.

Organisations involved will use their financial clout,

political influence and environmental expertise to prompt this

shift in thinking.

SWRDA, charged with keeping region's economy vibrant,

intends to make all its investments carbon-neutral by 2013. It

recently declined further funding to Newquay Airport because

the redevelopment project contravened its new environmental

policies.

The regional assembly, meanwhile, is made up of district and

county councillors from across the South West.

Mike Birkin, South West spokesman for Friends of the Earth,

said the action plan was right to focus on the existing housing

stock, renewable power and transport, but wanted to see some

more radical thinking. He added: "The absence of targets does

water it down. If you come back to it in a year's time there's

nothing to judge it against."

Part of the action plan is to calculate the financial cost

to the South West of climate change, a regional equivalent of

the hard-hitting Stern Review. This could include coastal

erosion, which research suggests could rise from £3.2 million a

year at present to £38 million annually by 2080.

The two-pronged action plan sets out, firstly, how the

region has to adapt to climate change. This includes

identifying areas most vulnerable to flooding, storms and

rising sea levels and investing in measures to protect

communities and the crumbling coastline.

It states that about 181,000 homes and businesses are at

low-to-medium risk from flooding in the South West, a figure

that is likely to increase in line with climate change.

The second strand of the plan involves slowing carbon

emissions in areas such as construction, big business and

transport. New planning guidance could see carbon emissions

from new developments reduced by between 35 per cent and 50 per

cent by 2016, the plan claims.

It also bills the South West as the "natural home for

renewable energy", adding that the region has a massive 1,000MW

of wind energy resource that remains untapped.

It says that SWRDA's Wave Hub plan off the Cornwall coast,

technology to generate electricity from waves, is a

priority.

Richard Cresswell, regional director of the Environment

Agency, said: "Even if we dramatically reduce emissions within

the region we will still experience climate changes.

"Therefore we must also be prepared for and adapt to the

current and predicted impacts. It is essential that we all take

action now.

"We need the support of organisations, businesses and

individuals throughout the region to ensure we achieve our

goals of reducing emissions and adapting to changes that are

likely to occur."