TWO projects in Devon have been awarded thousands of pounds in Defra cash to help shift people?s attitudes in favour of tackling climate change. Dartmoor National Park Authority will run a project called Climate Change ? Global Concern, Local Understanding (£7,500 grant), which will promote a sustained public awareness campaign about climate change and its effect on local life on Dartmoor. The grant will be used to carry out research for the campaign and to produce publicity materials. The chief work of the project will take place next year, with an exhibition being developed to run at the High Moorland Visitor Centre at Princetown before being taken out to other towns and cities. The awareness campaign will also incorporate a range of activities including guided walks and children?s activities. John Weir, spokesperson for the National Park Authority said: ?The emphasis will be on climate change: the current knowledge on the issue; mitigation ? what are people trying to do to reduce the impact of climate change on Dartmoor and how people can help. ?The authority has already set up an internal working group looking at the whole issue of climate change and that work will influence and have an input into the revised National Park Management Plan.? Defra received more than 500 applications for funding from across England, and Mr Weir said Dartmoor was the only National Park Authority to be successfully chosen. Mr Weir said the authority welcomed the grant from Defra and was looking forward to working closely with the other groups in the South West which had received grants. Westden has received £28,850 over two years for the ?Together We Can Tackle Climate Change?. The scheme in conjunction with DARE (Devon Association for Renewable Energy) and with scientific help from the Met Office aims to raise awareness of climate change to people living in West Devon through a range of media, including newspapers, radio and open air film screenings of relevant films and Defra material. Nicky Harmer, from Westden said the project would also raise climate change awareness through a competition run in local schools and a series of talks about the subject. ?At the end of the second year, we are hoping to have a big event, where we will have speakers who can offer practical solutions,? she said. ?We are really excited to have received this grant and to be able to do some work on climate change here in West Devon,? she added. Five projects from the South West are among a total of 53 projects across the country which will receive funding from Defra totalling £4.6m over the next two years. A further 32 projects submitted to Defra?s Climate Challenge Fund worth in the region of an additional £4m have been provisionally accepted subject to further negotiation. Environment Secretary David Miliband said: ?Climate change affects all of us and I believe the successful applicants will reach new audiences and communities at national, regional and local level and shift people?s opinions in favour of action to tackle climate change.? Mr Miliband said the Government was playing its part in giving a lead in tackling climate change, but this would not succeed without the ?support and active participation of all sectors of society?.