NEW climate change laws due to be introduced in the UK this summer do not go far enough, according to South Lakeland Friends of the Earth.

Mayor of Kendal, Gwen Murfin, and the South Lakeland World Development Movement joined Friends of the Earth in calling for tougher measures to reduce greenhouse emissions at a meeting at the Birdcage, Finkle Street, Kendal.

The meeting was part of Friends of the Earth's Big Ask campaign, which urges MPs to include aviation and shipping CO2 emissions in the Government's new climate change bill before it becomes law this summer.

South Lakeland Friends of the Earth asked passing members of the public to add their names to aeroplane-shaped letters that the group then posted to Downing Street.

The planes, 97 in total, carry a printed message asking the Government to reconsider the scope of the bill, and amend it accordingly. It asks: Would you sanction a drink-driving law that excludes whiskey?' Friends of the Earth member Marianne Bennett said: "It's crazy for Gordon Brown to leave out climate change emissions from planes and ships from the new climate change law, but that's what he is doing. Why should our local industry and businesses be held to account for their carbon emissions but not the aviation industry?"

The high altitude of aviation emissions, combined with water vapour, nitrous oxides, sulphate and soot from jet engines, create chemical reactions greater than the sum of the plane's CO2 emission.

Research conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows that aviation emissions are two to four times greater than the effect of the plane's carbon dioxide emissions alone.

Aeroplane contrails also contribute to the formation of cirrus clouds, which trap heat that would otherwise escape from Earth, gradually warming surface temperatures.

The Big Ask campaign wants the law to include aviation and shipping, and the promise of an 80 per cent emissions reduction by committing to an incremental three per cent decrease in emissions every year.