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On Friday I attended the re-opening of the newly refurbished branch of Johnson Dry Cleaners in Sandgate Road, Folkestone. They have introduced new equipment which will reduce their carbon footprint and greatly minimise the effect of their activities on the environment.

It set me thinking about how far we have come in terms of the general recognition that we all need to act to mitigate the harmful effects of man-made global warming.

When I bought my first Prius hybrid car, which operates partly on petrol and partly on electricity, no-one was interested, despite the fact that I was Leader of the Opposition at the time. And that was only five years ago.

I have been convinced of the need to take action for many years. Probably the single most fascinating day of my long period in government came in 1992 when, as the newly appointed Environment Secretary, I went to Washington to talk to the Administration of George Bush Snr. My mission was to persuade the President to sign the Climate Change Convention, the forerunner to Kyoto, and also to persuade him to attend the Earth Summit in Rio which was to take place that summer.

After meeting several heads of government departments and a long drafting session at the State Department, agreement was reached and the President duly signed the Convention and attended the Summit.

Since then things have moved on – both in terms of the damage being caused by global warming and the recognition of the need to take action to deal with that damage.

As we approach the Copenhagen Summit – with a new American Administration, much more favourably disposed to the need to take action – more and more attention will, rightly, be paid to this vital topic.

It may seem – and indeed is – a long way from the Copenhagen Summit to Johnson Dry Cleaners in Sandgate Road but unless the fine words of the Summit are matched with action on the ground, those words will be in vain. So I was encouraged by what I saw in Folkestone last week. We need much more of the same.