AN ENVIRONMENTAL expert has warned climate change could be the most serious threat to Kent since the Second World War.

Sean Furey, deputy director of the countryside charity, Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) Kent, expressed the view at a climate change conference, - the first of its kind in Kent, at Maidstone's County Hall.

The "Tomorrow's Kent" meeting was organised by the CPRE Kent to evaluate the potential damage and benefits a changing climate could bring to the county. Among the organisations represented were Kent County Council, the Environment Agency and the Kent Wildlife Trust.

Mr Furey told the meeting: "Climate change is perhaps the most serious threat to Kent since the Second World War in terms of how it will disrupt daily life. It asks us to use our resources much more wisely and to make our infrastructure more robust at an extreme level.

"We all need to take responsibility not in just making our lives climate proof but to reduce the causes by reducing our carbon footprint."

KCC's climate change project manager, Alison Cambray, stressed at the conference how partners, local authorities and community groups in Kent, could now start reducing their carbon emissions.

Ms Cambray said: "If we do not do it, how will we influence other countries to reduce their carbon footprint? We know the behaviour changed needed. We must have the political will to do it in Kent and to lead by example."

She said the county council was exploring ways to reduce the carbon footprint of each district council area over the next three years through different community projects within villages and towns.

Already with KCC's support, there were four small Kent communities piloting projects to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

They are at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey, Elham near Folkestone, Hadlow near Tonbridge, and St Margaret's-at-Cliffe near Dover, which are being led by schools, colleges and businesses.

The projects are being delivered through the Kent Energy Centre, which is providing the community leaders with specialist expert advice and tools.

The overall aim is to develop a toolkit for other communities within Kent to use in the future.

In his concluding statement, Mr Furey also stressed how important it was for the role of Government to play its part at every level.

"Tough decisions will need to be made, he said. "Change is not always bad and can open up new ideas to make our lives better. We must not hide from change and must decide the kind of place we want to live in before circumstances dictate that to us."

Factfile

* The predicted global warming by 2100 is between 1.5 and 6 degrees. There is international and national concern to keep emissions below 2 degrees.

* Two degrees globally means 3.5 degrees for Kent because the warming is greater towards the poles than at the equator.

* General consensus is that we need to act with real urgency to cut further emissions then because so much of the future depends on carbon emissions right now.