Melanie Reid

A young mother who has come up with an ambitious vision to make Stirling Britain's first carbon-neutral city has won £1.25million backing from the Big Lottery Fund and the Scottish government.

Rachel Nunn's simple scheme - Going Carbon Neutral Stirling - involves altering the way people think. It was hailed as “the start of an exciting new era”.

Mrs Nunn, 35, a mother of two young boys, said that under the scheme campaigners would visit community groups regularly and gradually encourage people to reset their aspirations and desires.

The weekly changes would start small - such as switching the lights off or washing clothes at 30C - and would build towards more significant lifestyle changes such as not using a car for short journeys.

“Everyone feels the same about climate change: we say, what's the point of me doing anything? But it starts with small steps. You can't tip the attitudes of a whole nation but you can tip a city ... and then maybe another city will copy us, and then another. And then Scotland could become carbon neutral and it could tip England,” she said.

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