Wool suits, jackets and coats were all seen at the conference, an example of a natural thermal insulator with the capacity to reduce reliance on heating from fossil fuels.

However it is not the first time clothing has been used for such a message.

"Turn down the heating and put on a sweater" was the message from a campaign instigated by US President Jimmy Carter during the oil crisis of 1979. Its message still has resonance 30 years on.

The European Commission states a household

can cut its CO2 emissions by up to 300kg a year and energy bill by five to 10 per cent simply by reducing its heating by just 1°C.

"Wearing wool, walking on wool and sleeping with wool are all ways of using this great renewable fibre in our everyday lives and in doing so think globally and act local-ly," Wool Carbon Alliance chairman Chick Olsson said.

Produced as part of the natural carbon process of plant sequestration and digestion, wool is made of 50 per cent organic carbon by weight.

The Wool Carbon Alliance is working to fill the research gaps, investing in studies of how much carbon flows through soils, plants and animals on farm.

In doing so, it explores the opportunity for such land-based (terres-trial) systems to sequester more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The Alliance was formed earlier this year and consists of various wool interests, working together to research and promote wool as the fibre of choice for environmentally conscious consumers.