THE British International Motor Show is being hailed as the 'greenest' motor show yet as manufacturers launch the most environmentally-aware range of cars yet seen.

More than 5,000 trees - such as oak, chestnut and beech - will be planted by Mazda in the Motor Show Forest which forms part of the Forest of Mercia - a project to create a new forest in the West Midlands. The manufacturer says that means enough trees will be planted to absorb all of the carbon dioxide emissions of the show in its set-up, running and dismantling. In addition it is hoped that show visitors will buy trees at £3 each from the Future Forests stand to cover their journeys to and from the NEC.

Five trees will be planted to offset each tonne of carbon. As the trees grow they turn carbon dioxide emissions into oxygen which in turn is released into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, rival Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi claims its GDI direct injection petrol engine, which reduces CO2 emissions by up to 20%, will save the British environment from more than 1,399 tonnes of the greenhouse gas this year alone when compared to a conventional multi-point fuel injection petrol engine.'

A Mitsubishi spokesman said: 'This amount of CO2 would require 608 acres of trees to fully absorb it over the course of a year.'