The northwestern English town has set itself the ambitious aim of eliminating its net output of carbon dioxide.

Given that 16 trees absorb the carbon dioxide generated by a single resident of the developed world, the village of 1,000 plans to plant 16,000 trees. It has already planted more than 8,000.

Ashton is planting mostly willow because the trees grow quickly, sucking up carbon in the process.

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Plans for the village include renewable wind and solar technology, biofuels, home energy reduction, composting and carbon sinks in the form of trees and vegetation.

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He is encouraging people in the village and beyond to take is to switch to ‘green’ electricity. This effectively means converting to solar or asking your household electricity supplier to provide energy from a renewable source.

The city council pledged its support and promised to work towards becoming a ‘carbon neutral’ council. They are also offering every child under seven in the council’s area an opportunity to plant a tree at school.

The village will only be able to measure its progress if it has detailed information on its emissions and the number of trees in the area. For this, it has turned to the university.

Dr Roy Alexander, from the Geography and International Development Studies department, described their role: ?EUR??,,????'?????<

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