THE Mersey Partnership’s report into the ways in which Liverpool and its surrounding areas can face up to the legal need to cut carbon emissions makes sober reading.

That is not to say it is a doomsday document, far from it. But it is a serious analysis of the targets that need to be met, and the way in which they might be met, while keeping on board the need to maintain economic growth.

As things stand, the carbon emissions per head in the Liverpool City Region are lower that both the north west average and the UK national average.

But although that is, on the face of things, a matter of some pride, it is also a consequence of the way in which Liverpool is still playing catch-up with the more prosperous parts of the country.

The difficult task is going to be one of getting the carbon figures down while keeping the local economy not just moving, but actually expanding. The old adage that where’s there’s muck there’s brass still applies, and economic planners will have their work cut out to stand it on its head.

The best hopes, the Partnership’s report suggests, lie in the depth of knowledge of “green” technologies to be found across the academic institutions and hi-tech industries in the area.

Around 90,000 jobs are in sectors that could feel the effect of the drive to lower carbon emissions, and the prospect of some 7,000 new jobs in the environmental technology and service sector is one that should be seized with both hands.

That is not to be sneezed at, being roughly equivalent to the combined workforce of Jaguar Land-Rover and Vauxhall.

It has been suggested that these new jobs could materialise in a relatively short five years. The time for action, then, is now.