A journalism lecturer is to chair a debate on the environment at next week’s Labour Party conference in Manchester.

Sarah Lonsdale, left, a lecturer for the University of Kent’s Centre for Journalism, will oversee a debate entitled Zero Carbon Homes: Future or Fantasy, which will cover the topic of reducing carbon emissions from the nation’s homes.

The debate, which will take place next Wednesday, the last day of the conference, will also ask whether the controversial ‘eco towns’ plans are achievable.

Housing Minister Caroline Flint will be one of the speakers. The debate is being staged by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), one of the country’s leading independent think-tanks.

Sarah, who will be teaching reporting and writing to this year’s new intake of journalism students at Kent’s Medway campus, has a regular column called Ecohomes in the Sunday Telegraph.

In June she was named Environment Writer of the Year for her Greenpiece column in the Daily Telegraph. Last year Sarah also made the final shortlist of three writers for the title of Journalist of the Year in the British Environment and Media (BEMA) Awards.

“It is now generally accepted that to avoid runaway climate change we need to reduce carbon emissions by 80 per cent by the year 2050. Reducing emissions from our homes – which make up more than a quarter of the UK’s total carbon emissions – is one of the easiest areas to tackle,” she said.

“I am looking forward to be chairing a debate on such a vital issue at this year’s Labour Party Conference.”