Andrew Lewis, head of campaigning quango The Northern Way, said officers were working to convince senior civil servants to invest in the North.

He said: "I think there are real opportunities here for the North and the North East, because we have a strong engineering and manufacturing background with the skills that will be needed to meet the carbon challenge.

"We are now trying to encourage the bigger national agencies and companies to look at the North and see what it has to offer."

His optimism was backed up by regional development agency One North East.

Senior energy specialist James Battensby said officers were planing a regional response to the Government’s carbon consultation.

"We see this consultation as a significant opportunity for the North East to help shape the clean coal agenda."