When it comes to cutting carbon emissions, or reducing the need for land fill, small things can make a big difference if we all do them. Small things like using a composter for kitchen scraps or taking a bit more care over recycling as Steve is doing in these pictures. Small things like installing energy saving light bulbs or using the bus or train instead of the car now and again.

Why not let us have your ideas for easy ways to go green and we'll pass them on. If you wish to leave an idea, fill in your details below and leave your message.

Ladyman’s Thanet -Climate Change

The Government has published its landmark Climate Change Bill. Once approved by Parliament we will be the first country in the world to make it a legal obligation for our Government to cut carbon emissions.

The Bill sets out Britain’s plans to tackle climate change for the next 50 years, and includes legally binding targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by at least 60 per cent by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. It also provides a clear pathway to achieve the emission reductions through a system of five-year carbon budgets, set 15 years ahead.

Many constituents have written to me supporting the idea of a strong Climate Change Bill and some want our target to be 80% not 60%. A strong Bill is essential – and it is a strong Bill that the Government has already put on the table – but the Bill also has to be practical. Before we sign up to 80% instead of 60% we have to know if it’s achievable and so Gordon Brown has started a consultation to find out.

But we should also see climate change as an opportunity both locally and nationally. Locally we have the opportunity to create jobs constructing and maintaining the new offshore wind farms. It won’t be easy to win those jobs for Thanet as a lot of other areas want them too, but I believe we can do it, and then other areas will look to us in the future to provide them with wind farm equipment and expertise.

And as a nation we have huge expertise in ‘green’ technology and that is expertise we can sell all around the world. Indeed, if you are one of those people who save your Gazette to read over Saturday’s breakfast then by the time you read this article I will be in Shanghai, at the request of the Shanghai Municipal Government, delivering a speech to tell Chinese planners and industrialists exactly that.

It’s no good the UK cutting back on carbon emissions if Chinese industries simply replace it, but that does not have to be how it is. We can sell them the technology to build a ‘green’ economy and that will be good for the environment, good for China and good for us too.

Companies with bases here in the South East are already involved in this work. For example, Arup is leading the development of the Dongtan Eco-City, a city that will eventually be home to 500,000 people but which will be as near to carbon neutral as it’s possible to be. Other companies are helping China produce clean energy and to make their industry more energy efficient.

Gordon Brown has made it clear that tackling climate change cannot wait and he wants Britain leading the way. He also recognizes that there is a huge future for Britain in selling ‘green’ technology and he is determined that we grasp that opportunity. Here in Thanet we should back him all the way.

Labour has committed to using science to tackle the problems facing our society in a changing world.

John Denham unveiled the location of the new Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), backed by up to £550m of Government investment announced by Gordon Brown in the 2006 Budget. The new centre, based at Loughborough University, will bring more focus, ambition and collaboration to the UK's energy and environmental technology drive. It will have a potential budget of over £1bn.

The ETI will bring together some of the world's biggest companies, including BP, Caterpillar, EDF Energy, EON, Rolls-Royce and Shell. It will be calling on businesses to come up with big ideas and inventions that will help the UK to:

- Cut CO2 emissions to save the planet;

- Deliver more efficient energy to keep the public warm cost effectively;

- Guarantee this country has the energy supplies it needs now and in the future.