Britain on a green energy drive.

(From New Straits Times (Malaysia))

AN international group of scientists, government officials and environmental advocates were attending a week-long seminar on climate change when the war in Iraq broke out.

While the seminar discussed ways in which participating countries could reduce their output of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming, there was a war going on which was adding more of this gas into the atmosphere.

Amid discussions about the use of cleaner, renewable energy sources, the war in (or for, as some might say) an oil-rich country was the most current and vivid object lesson about our age-old dependency on fossil fuels - and how it's time to change.

Climate change and energy use are closely related. Energy - whether electricity, heat, or for driving your car - has traditionally been derived from fossil fuels, such as oil, gas and coal.

When these fuels burn, carbon dioxide is emitted. Unfortunately, carbon dioxide is a stubborn gas that stays in the atmosphere for up to 100 years.

Its presence traps the sun's heat around the earth, creating a warming, or "greenhouse" …