The study by the largely government-funded Energy Saving Trust (EST) has been handed over this week to the Department of Trade and Industry. "The report will be used for a white paper the government is preparing on climate control to be released at the end of the year," Margot Marshall from EST told IPS Thursday.

The report recommends a severe cutback in use of cars as one way of averting catastrophe. Its recommendations will be crucial in setting out new government policy on climate control. The EST is one of Britain's leading organisations fighting climate change.

The report says 1.8 million British homes and 180,000 commercial properties are at risk - about half of them around London. The Trust calls on the government to dramatically reduce carbon emissions in the face of an overwhelming threat of global climate change.

"Environmental concerns must be at the heart of the government's new energy policy if we are to bring about the 60 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions the Prime Minister signalled at Johannesburg," says Dr Eoin Lees, EST's Chief Executive. "Without cuts of this size, we risk a 3�C increase in global temperature, and in the UK enormous damage from sea level rise, storm surges and gale-force winds."

The warning has come home starkly after a summer of battering by storms and flooding in Britain and much of Europe. The report was handed over to the government as some towns in Scotland remained under five feet of water.

The EST warns that storm damage from climate change is likely to affect potentially five million people and 1.4 million hectares of agricultural land. The estimated assets risk is 345 billion dollars, it says.

"Around half of the assets at risk lie in the Thames region (around London), with 150 square kilometres lying below high tide levels, and 750,000 Londoners at risk of major storm surge," the report says. "Flooding in London could cause direct damage of 30 billion dollars, threatening London's future as an international centre for trade and commerce."

The study points out that more than three-fifths of the country's farmland will be threatened with flooding. It describes global warming as "the greatest threat facing the world community."

Some areas around London are already 12 feet below the level of high tides, the report says, adding that the Thames Barrier which was expected to be closed just about ten times a year had to be drawn shut 24 times in 2000-2001.

The report comes as other government departments are planning major new housing development in this area.

The study considers efficient use of energy the best way to save Britain. "Energy efficiency cuts carbon emissions with a net benefit to the economy of 230 dollars per tonne."

The EST is asking for a commitment to energy efficiency to be increased two and a half times its current level by 2010. It wants 20 per cent of electricity generated from renewable sources by 2020, 40 per cent improvement in household energy use by the same year and that 10 per cent of all new cars and 20 per cent of buses to be low carbon vehicles by 2012.

The report is asking for "green travel policies to achieve in the long term a reduction in vehicle use and ownership." It says: "A long-term policy aimed at slowing down and ultimately reducing car ownership, as well as use, will be necessary to have any real impact on transport emissions".

The EST pleads for a network of local sustainable energy centres to be built around Britain "to achieve climate change action on the ground." These centres will offer guidance on energy efficiency, renewables and sustainable road transport.

"The UK has never put its weight behind energy efficiency, especially in the household sector," says Lees. "Existing programmes are cost-effective, but too small. It is time we caught up with our European neighbours. If we have the political will, and invest now, we can save enormous amounts of energy and avoid the need for new nuclear capacity to meet household electricity demands."

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