DRIVERS of `green' cars could pay cut-price congestion charges under a plan to slash carbon emissions in Manchester by nearly a third.

The council is also looking at a network of 20 huge wind turbines across the city and offering households incentives to heat water with solar power.

New developments will be expected to ensure renewable energy provides at least 20 per cent of their energy needs. And up to 20,000 homes could be linked in district heating schemes - using plants or waste products to create bio-fuels.

The moves are part of a massive anti-climate change drive announced by the council today. Manchester aims to cut its annual carbon emissions from 3.3 million tonnes to 2.3m by 2020 as part of a bid to become Britain's greenest city.

The council has pledged £1m to kick-start the changes - and is hoping that amount will be matched by business, public bodies and other organisations.

The cash will fund a list of specific measures that include:

Creating 20 large wind turbines in or around the city;

Offering `incentives' - possibly including cash grants - to all households `for the uptake of solar water heating';

Putting 10 per cent of Manchester businesses on combined heat and power systems, or their own mini-generators;

Exploring `emissions-based charging' of motorists as part of the promotion of hybrid and bio-diesel fuels.

Coun Neil Swannick said that could include offering reduced rates to drivers of `cleaner' cars if the planned congestion charge goes ahead.

Motorists have previously been told they face a peak-hour charge of up to £5 a day if a bid for £3bn of public transport cash is successful.

Coun Swannick said: "We are having discussions about the congestion charge and how an environmental element could come into it.

"Climate change is inevitable and we have no choice but to address the issue in a practical way. No single sector or organisation can deliver the necessary level of reduction on its own. We have a collective responsibility to reduce the negative impact as far as we are able."

Coun Swannick confirmed that the council - which declared itself the first `nuclear-free city' in 1980 - would continue to oppose the increased use of nuclear power for energy.

The climate change proposals will be subject to full public consultation before approval. The move comes amid growing pressure on countries to act decisively on greenhouse gases.

Experts at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, at Manchester University, have warned even a 60 per cent drop in worldwide carbon emissions would not be enough to stop average temperatures rising 2 per cent by 2100.

That could have catastrophic effects, leaving 2.8bn people at risk of water shortage, destroying 97 per cent of coral reefs and rendering the polar bear extinct by the loss of summer Arctic sea ice.

Prof Erik Bichard, of Salford University, praised the Manchester initiative.

He said: "Scientists are telling us we have a very narrow window in which to act. "We have five to 15 years to not only stop accelerating carbon emissions but radically reduce them."