THE North-East's first conference on climate change is to be on Tuesday.
Durham County Council is hosting the event, which will include key figures from the worlds of environment, business, health and insurance.
Every delegate is being asked to contribute £5 to fund tree-planting to neutralise the effects of carbon dioxide emissions caused by their journeys.
The event is being sponsored by Sustaine, the regional sustainable development group, Government Office North-East, the Centre for Sustainable Development and the North-East Regional Assembly.
It will include workshops on subjects including sea level, erosion, flooding, agriculture, forestry and energy sources.
The findings will be made into a North-East Climate Change Challenge statement.
David Miller, the council's head of environment and resources service, said: "Climate change is an increasing influence on all of us.
"There are potentially massive changes here in the North-East and we have to start thinking and planning now about what we can do and how we can set about doing it."
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