DECC Youth Panel presents... 'Energy: How fair is it anyway?'

Over the past few months, Daisy and I (two of the ‘Copenhagen 4’) have sat on the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC’s) Youth Advisory Panel. Our role is to advise DECC about the youth perspective on their policies, and to embed the ideas of intergenerational equity and long termism into their decision making process.

The Panel was formed in February of this year, and comprises around 16 core members, each representing a range of organisations – I was representing UNICEF, but Oxfam, the National Union of Students, the Scouts, People and Planet, WWF, Plan, UKYCC and many other groups were also represented. We met a few times to discuss how we were going to work and what sort of things we would be doing, and the civil servants we met seemed to welcome us as genuinely helpful in letting them know what young people thought about the work they were doing.

In July, we were finally given our first proper project. DECC is launching their ‘Roadmap to 2050’ early next year, which is their vision of how the UK can meet its self-imposed target of 80% emissions reduction by mid-century. They wanted us to investigate our own pathway to 2050, and we were lucky enough to be funded by Sciencewise to create our own report on the issue. They’ve launched their own (rather complicated) ‘Pathways Calculator’, which you can use to find out how you might sort out our energy problems.

The energy mix of 2050 is something that is uniquely relevant to young people. We are going to be the ones who will live with the decisions made today, so the Panel decided to travel around the country, visiting places that demonstrate potentially relevant energy technologies for 2050. From offshore wind to coal fired-power stations, and from a nuclear plant to an eco-friendly home, we investigated the implications of different sorts of energy solutions to the problem of how we’ll produce and use energy in a low-carbon way over the next few decades.

Shocked by the amount we learned on one of the visits!

Having visited sites around the UK and surveyed hundreds of young people on their thoughts, we were able to launch a pretty well-informed and comprehensive report last Thursday, called Energy: How fair is it anyway?. Our recommendations included things like phasing out coal-fired power stations (at least, those which lacked technology to reduce their emissions) within the decade and a 0% VAT rate on home energy efficiency improvement measures. We also asked the government to develop a clear long term strategy for dealing with nuclear waste, in the interests of intergenerational equity. You can view the rest of the report and the recommendations we made HERE.

I was lucky enough to sit on the presenting Panel, along with two other Panellists and Prof. David MacKay, the Chief Scientific Adviser to DECC. We talked a bit about the report and tried to answer questions about the specifics of our recommendations. The audience comprised civil servants, representatives from our organisations and other interested parties. It was also streamed live online, and we had video links with young people at climate conferences in Cancun and Brussels. You can find out more about the launch and see how it happened HERE.

Me, trying to think of something to say...

It felt great not only to be part of a unique experiment of embedding the voices of young people in government, but also to be given the opportunity to represent the Panel in our first public launch event. The inclusion of the youth perspective in high-level decision-making is essential, especially with regards to issues like climate change. Let’s hope it continues!

Please read the report, discuss it in your schools and colleges, and let us know what you think of it by emailing us at youthpanel@think2050.org! You can also see the Panel’s blog HERE.

Thanks!

Luke

Launch of Climate Ambassador Programme!

After the Children's Climate Forum it was decided that all the delegates would become global Climate Ambassadors when they returned home. The programme is designed to create a network of young climate activists that empowers and trains young people to engage their local communities in the climate debate.


The role of the Climate Ambassador is to:

• Engage and inform their communities about climate change
• Voice and represent the concerns of young people
• Share ideas and inspire other young people via the Unite for Climate Website

Of the 160 young people who attended the Forum, 12 'Links' were selected to act as the co-ordinators of the Climate Ambassador Programme (CAP). My role is to liaise between UNICEF and the board of Links, which will consist of the following areas of interest:

• Communications - produces a monthly newsletter for the Climate Ambassadors, along with an already up and running blog.
• Action planners - plan actions that all Climate Ambassadors can take part in, plus providing support for members who are already doing projects in their own communities.
• Advocacy - design advocacy programmes and campaigns that CAP members can promote
• Research - provide news and information of what is happening in the ever-changing world of climate change.

What is so great about the Climate Ambassador Programme is that the energy, ideas and passion that were established in Copenhagen can be built upon over the next year. Since the Forum, I have been in contact with some of the other Climate Ambassadors and heard what they have been doing in their own communities. The Turkish delegation recently organised a survey about climate change, which 5,000 students took part in! A team of delegations have also been busy setting up a campaign called 'Go Green Haiti!' to rebuild Haiti after the terrible earthquake in January in a more sustainable way.

Climate change commitment tree at the Forum

The fact that young people in Haiti are still determined to raise awareness about the positive opportunities climate change can offer us after having lost everything is so inspirational and makes me want to fight even harder to help save such wonderful people and our beautiful planet!

Katie x

The power of young people

Katie has been busy volunteering in her local area.

Since I returned from Copenhagen, I have been sharing what I learnt at UNICEF's Children's Climate Forum with my local community and other young people. In Decemeber, a presentations evening was held at Worcester Volunteer Centre, where I have been volunteering for almost two years. The international environmental youth project in the centre, called SEED, also had exciting stories to tell as they had just returned from a trip to India where they learnt about sustainability out there. A fact that really surprised me was that in terms of wind power installed capacity, India is ranked fifth in the world.

In February, I was invited to speak at the National Trust's 'You, Me & The Climate' project's celebration event, which was held at one of their beautiful properties, Prior Park, in Bath. I am always really impressed by the National Trust's work with young people and the environment, but I guess they have to be given their organisation is already being severely impacted by climate change. For instance, over the last eight years, they have been forced to make over 400 separate insurance claims for flood or storm damage, worth over £3.2 million.

'Society cannot ignore climate change - its impacts are being felt
already and they will become much more widespread.' - Dame Fiona Reynold
DBE, Director General of the National Trust

Over the past few months, I have also been organising a high school eco-ambassadors event, which took place at Worcestershire's County Hall. Five local eco-schools attended, along with two youth volunteering groups from Worcester Volunteer Centre and some county councillors.

'Eco-Schools is an international award programme
that guides schools on their sustainable journey, providing a framework to
help embed these principles into the heart of school life.'

The purpose of the event was to give the eco-schools the opportunity to hear about wider environmental volunteering opportunities whilst sharing what they are already doing within their schools. I also ran a climate change-related activity, called 'Rising Tide', which I too from Tagd's peer education pack. I wanted to communicate the fact that in the next 100 years, Atlantic sea levels are predicted to rise by up to 1m, threatening low-level countries all across the world, including the Maldives and Bangladesh.

Having a fun break, doing the Rising Tide activity

All my events received great feedback and I encourage you to hold some of your own about issues that are important to you. We need to make adults realise that young people have a passion, creativity and determination that can and should be used as a positive force for change in society.


Katie x

Cloud nine: On track

The team travelling home from the Forum, but only beginning their new journeys as Climate Ambassadors.
UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase

The children’s Climate Forum has been an apex of passion, commitment and inspiration. Sitting here on the train from Copenhagen to Cologne I feel so enormously privileged. Despite my tiredness I feel high on the euphoria of being part of something so fantastic that has given the world’s children an opportunity to voice their concerns about an issue that all too often jeopardises our basic rights. To hear my newfound friends at the Forum saying, ‘we can’t go to school when the rain is very heavy', has further motivated me and has exemplified how climate change induced disasters deny our fellow citizens the right to education, health and happiness. It has been reassuring to know that I am not alone in my quest to 'right' these wrongs and together, as one, we can be a tide of change, with today being the day of the wave march in London.

Some of the delegates at the Forum after a brilliant week of working together.
UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase

The last two days of the Forum have been greater than ever with yet more fantastic workshops, where I created my very own silicon solar panel! And even used it to power a cutting edge cardboard buggy. Understanding such technology will play a key role in the Primary School workshops I will continue to run. Within my political and advocacy group the incredible opportunity of hosting a question and answer session with both the Chinese and Moldavian negotiators arose, for which I was elected co-chairperson. Unfortunately, the Chinese pulled out at the last minute and we were left with a redundant script and pre-prepared questions, compounded by the fact that the Moldivian negotiator was over twenty minutes late. Improvisation was the order to the day and in the true spirit of the Forum we rose up in the face of adversity and unanimously gained a greater understanding of how the negotiations will run at COP 15.


Cressie and others listen intently to the negotiator from the Maldives, as he discusses the reality of sealing a deal at the UN Climate Summit.
UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase

The closing ceremony was as marvellous as the rest of the forum with our song ‘ It’s my world’ and the wondrous Alien Beat Club and the climax of handing over our manifesto to the Chair of the COP 15 negotiations. The highlight of the forum for me was when I was asked to attend the press conference, after the closing ceremony. I was nervous but determined to do justice to so many articulate participants and to communicate how Climate Change is as much of a moral issue as an ecological one.


Climate Ambassadors hand over a copy of the declaration to Connie Hedegaard, President of the COP15, at the closing ceremony of the Children's Climate Forum. UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase

The closing party was a great opportunity to let our hair down and for me learn to dance the American way- more lessons are definitely required though! Regardless of language, everyone can communicate through dance and I strongly advocate the world leaders try it!

A delegate from Kirabati shows off some spectacular dance moves at the party!
UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase

On the last day we were also given our buddy Country, for which ours was Vietnam, a country that has been hard hit by global warming. I am determined to capitalise on such international links to launch an education programme and my, ‘Don’t Bake the Planet’ Campaign.


The Vietnamese and British Climate Ambassadors discuss how they can work together going into the future.
UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase

Finally, our trip to Tivoli gardens was an array of festivity as fairy lights danced in the trees, making the skyline a wonder wall of colour and creating a truly magical experience. It was all FAB; my only hope is that COP15 shall be equally fabulous with a fair, ambitious and binding deal being reached.


The British and American Climate Ambassadors enjoy an incredibly Christmassy trip to Tivoli Gardens on their last day in Copenhagen.
UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase

This is but the beginning…

Cressie
XXX

The climate, the Countess and the cook

Climate Ambassadors at the Forum energise themselves for a plenary session in the Copenhagen City Hall.
UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase

It has only been three days since the CCF opened and the UK delegation have already given talks in schools, made pizza, rehearsed our climate change song, taken part in countless workshops and even met the Countess of Denmark!!!

On Sunday we split up into our Adaptation workshops. For me this has been one of the biggest highlights of the forum so far. The workshop I took part in was focussed on Climate Justice. Climate Justice is an issue I am incredibly passionate about. I was really inspired by the fact that no-one disagreed or argued with one another. Every single delegate believed that industrialised countries should help developing countries deal with climate change in one way or another. This made me think that if only the world leaders could have acted like this a long time ago, the world wouldn’t be facing the climate change problems it is today.

All of the views and ideas from the different workshops shined through when presented to the whole Forum. I was chosen to present on Financial Climate Justice and although nerve wracking, it was an experience I will never forget. It was particularly moving how emotionally a young delegate from Hong Kong reacted to how much of a challenge all of the ideas would be to implement in her country. It made me realise that it’s not just developing countries suffering from climate change, but over developed countries like Hong Kong will also find it taxing to adapt to climate change.

Graeme speaks to the Forum about ideas for achieving financial climate justice.

UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase

In the evening, many events took place. These included Santa Claus himself lighting the Copenhagen City Christmas Tree and Flaming Pandas (people who were in Panda suits which were on fire)! We also rehearsed our climate change song for the Closing Ceremonies, where I stood next to the Countess of Denmark and the young princes who are in line to the throne of Denmark.

Graeme meets Countess Alexandra at the climate song rehearsal

UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase

On Monday, we split up into our Mitigation workshop groups. This was also very inspiring, and it was interesting to hear everyone’s views in my Renewable Energy workshop. In the afternoon we went to visit the UK delegation’s host school. After a ride on the Copenhagen underground we arrived at the school where the students gave us a presentation on Danish culture and climate change in Denmark- we were put to shame when we found out that 20% of Danish electricity is produced by wind power, but only 2% of UK electricity is produced this way. We were so impressed that they gave both presentations in near perfect English! We also gave our presentation on UK culture- and they laughed at our myth about the haggis.

Students from the Danish host school with the UK Delegation

UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase

In the evening I learned how to make pizza dough from the Danish students, which was a lot of fun though very messy. I not only managed to cover myself in flour but I also encrusted my shoes in dough, leading everyone to think that I had in fact kneaded the dough with my feet! However, the results were delicious and we had a really great evening. We’re all now looking forward to our field trip with them to a Renewable Energy Centre tomorrow.

Graeme

Copenhagen, Baby!

The Copenhagen 4 inspect the giant ball covered in all the delegates handprints and climate statements.
UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase

The Copenhagen 4 have arrived! We’re all really tired from our first day hard at work at the Children’s Climate Forum, but our levels of enthusiasm and excitement are at an all-time high!

We arrived on Friday evening and settled into the youth hostel which is putting every one of the 45 delegations up for the duration of the Forum. We (the boys) found our first friends from another delegation in our roommates, who come from Turkey. They speak good English, which helps!

We got up for a 7.30 breakfast, which is pretty much the earliest I have woken up on a Saturday since I was in the womb. Having headed across to the City Hall (which is an AMAZING building – it looks like it has come straight out of the Middle Ages!), we got to setting up our exhibition stand about UK culture. It was really great to see all the delegations in one room together and to start to mingle. We made loads of really good friends – from Poland, Kiribati (which is pronounced Kiribas), the Maldives, New Zealand, Greenland, Hong Kong and from loads of other places too!

Katie adds her thoughts to a poster.
UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase

We then had a plenary session in which we discussed what was going to happen during the week and had the opportunity to get to know the facilitators a bit. The opening ceremony was an awesome experience – we got to see the best of Danish carol singing and ballet dancing and heard brief speeches from some important local people. The Forum was declared ‘open’ upon the lifting of a giant ball covered in all the delegates’ handprints and their climate statements – it was quite a spectacle!

A tatste of Danish culture at the opening ceremony.
UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase

In the afternoon we got into some more detailed discussion about climate change, COP15 and our role in the climate debate. It is a truly quite profound experience to sit in the midst of 160 young people who, with their widely varying cultures, backgrounds, experiences and thoughts about climate change, have nevertheless congregated with a single-minded aim: to get something done about it. Striking also was the realisation that we in Britain still see climate change as a threat to our futures – having heard a snapshot of others’ experiences of climate change, it is clear that for many of the people we are with, it is a very real and present threat to their communities’ ways of life.

The delegates get to work.
UNICEF UK/2009/Rowan Boase

So having found out a bit more about what the next week holds for us and having made some great new friends, we are really looking forward to having a fantastic Forum. So to sum up, in the words of our Turkish roommates, today was ‘tiring but funky’.

Luke x

Meeting your local MP

I recently met with my local MP, Peter Luff, after arranging to meet him at his weekly surgery. We discussed my involvement with UNICEF, my local volunteering activities, but also the Conservative policies and his own personal opinions surrounding climate change.

With the General Election fast approaching, it was really valuable to get an insight into the Conservative’s action plan when it comes to the environmental agenda. Their priorities seem to be:

• The development of ‘smart grid’ and ‘smart meter’ technology
• Subsidising the insulation of homes
• Encouraging the micro-generation of electricity
• Expanding offshore wind and marine power

Worcestershire, my home county, is relatively forward-looking when it comes to sustainability, achieving the Beacon Award for tackling climate change in 2008-2009. Whilst Peter and I didn’t see eye to eye on some issues, such as wind turbines and nuclear power, it was great that he gave me some of his time – especially given that I am not even of voting age yet!

Architects from Worcestershire County Council working with young people at a design workshop, with the aim of building an eco-community centre in our local area.

In many ways, I felt that Peter did not quite grasp the extent of youth activism on climate change in my local area. This is why it is essential for young people to contact their local MP’s and get their voices heard on such issues. By showing local leaders that we support ambitious climate policies and pledges and reminding them that we will be the ones voting and facing the consequences of climate change, they will soon start to take notice! So here are a few of my top tips for contacting and meeting your local MP:

1. Have a look at the website ‘They Work For You’ to find out who your local MP is, what they have voted on recently and their main topics of interest.


2. All MP’s have a personal website where you can find contact details – write them a letter or an email, or even ring them up and see if you can arrange a meeting. They might take a while to respond, but be patient!


3. Once you’ve got a date, do some research. Have a look at some issues they have campaigned about recently and think about how it’s relevant to you. They will be pleasantly surprised by your initiative and will certainly be more responsive in the discussion.


4. Relax, act confident and smile! There is no need to be nervous – they are representing you and will appreciate what you have to say.


5. Thank them for their time, even if the discussion wasn’t that positive.

I hope to get in touch with Peter once I return from Copenhagen, and discuss the outcomes of the Children’s Climate Change Forum and the UN Conference, and what it means for our local area. I hope you feel inspired to take similar action with your local MP and get a positive experience out of it!

Katie x

Copenhagen 4: Letter to Gordon Brown and Final Prep. Weekend

Hi Everyone!

Sorry it's been a while since our last blog, but it's good because we've now got a lot to update you on!

Last weekend (6-8 Nov.) the four of us travelled down to London for what was our final meeting in preparation for the Children's Climate Forum. It was a really fun weekend, and once again we left feeling inspired by each other's enthusiasm.

Having arrived at our hotel on Friday night, we got cracking early on Saturday with some public speaking training, which was a really amazing experience. Jennifer, the expert who was training us, was fantastic, and got us talking about all kinds of crazy things off the top of our heads. We each learnt a lot about ourselves and how we come across to an audience, and picked up some great tips as to how to improve our speaking, which will be really helpful at the CCF.

In the afternoon we talked more about the Forum itself and what we would be doing there, and discussed the presentation that we are to give to our host Danish school (you can see the presentation here, even as we are making it - we're not quite there yet, but we think it's looking really cool already!). By the evening, although we were completely worn out by the day's activities, we had a lovely pizza dinner and went to watch Up! (definitely worth a watch) in 3-D in the West End, which was really good, albeit in quite a sad and scary way! Then Luke kindly tried to give us a really fascinating explanation as to how the 3-D glasses worked and how they could be used to demonstrate quantum mechanical effects, but by that time we were too tired to care and instead politely pretended we were listening.

In the morning we finished off a few more things, such as our choices for the workshops we would be doing in Copenhagen. We had to resort to pulling names out of a hat at least twice, and it turns out that the hats love Graeme! We ended up (after MUCH deliberation) being very happy with our choices, and it's great to know what we'll be doing while we are there. There was a bit of rush at the end to get our exhibition stand created - this is where we'll be making a display about Britain for the other delegations to look at on the first day of the Forum. We ended up not quite getting it finished, but luckily the wonderful UNICEF staff were (all too) keen to help finish the painting and sticking for us!

We also, finally, got our letter to Gordon Brown finished, signed and sent off! Wooo! Basically we are thanking him for agreeing to attend COP15, telling him about who we are, what the CCF is, and what we are doing prior to it. We also ask to see if he will meet with us so that we can hand over the Declaration of Young People's views after the Forum to him personally, which would be an awesome opportunity for us to tell him and the UK public about what we have been doing. You can see the final letter here. We think it's a great summary of everything we have been doing and our most important views about climate change. Let's hope he agrees to meet us! You can see the letter below:Well I think that's about it! We are so insanely excited about Copenhagen - in two weeks' time we'll be there! Make sure you keep reading this blog - we'll be updating it regularly with all the exciting things we're doing!

Thanks for reading!

Young Commonwealth Climate Change Summit

‘Tackling Climate Change: A commonwealth agenda for young people’

Foreign Office Minister Baroness Kinnock speaking at the Young Commonwealth Climate Change Summit in London, 28 October 2009.

Here’s a quick reminder of just a few of the member states of the Commonwealth:

• South Africa


• Maldives


• Zambia


• Bangladesh

Young people from these countries, amongst many others, are already feeling the effects of climate change. Representatives were invited to attend the Summit to share their stories and to develop a Youth Statement and Recommendations for Action to influence Commonwealth policies.

UNICEF were asked to run a session about the impact of climate change on children’s rights, and I was lucky enough to join Jazmin, a UNICEF youth officer, at the Commonwealth Secretariat for the morning workshop.

Meeting young people from all over the world was a great experience, and a good insight into how the Children’s Climate Change Forum will be. We heard how some countries are already suffering from increased droughts, flooding and food shortages and how young people were trying to address these challenges, which I found both frightening and inspiring.

Hopefully, by making them aware of the relationship between climate change and children’s rights, they will feel empowered to fight for those who are unable to speak out. I wish them all the luck with the challenges they face back home and hope that their statement will add to young people’s impact at the UN Climate Change Conference.

Katie x

Tagd gets blogging for Climate Change Blog Action Day

Today is Climate Change Blog Action Day, when thousands of bloggers around the world post their thoughts on climate change. The aim is to spark discussion on this pressing global issue.


Apparently, it will be one of the “largest social change events on the web”. Even Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s at it.

Never one to miss out on a party, Tagd is also doing a blog for the Climate Change Blog Action Day (you’re reading it right now!). Climate change is one of UNICEF’s central campaigns, after all.

So we thought we’d use this opportunity to fill you in on the climate change campaign activities Tagd is involved with.

As you might have gathered from the posts below, Tagd are sending four young people to Copenhagen to represent the UK in the Children’s Climate Change Forum in December, ahead of the very important United Nations Climate Change Conference, where world leaders will meet to formulate a global agreement on climate change.

The ‘Copenhagen 4’, Cressie, Graeme, Katie and Luke (pictured above), won the chance to attend the forum on behalf of young people in the UK after entering UNICEF’s Big Climate Callout competition. Stay tuned for more enlightening posts from our foursome on their preparations for the trip and the forum itself over the coming days and weeks. You can also keep up to date with UNICEF’s work leading up to the conference by registering with Tagd.

Tagd is also promoting loads of ways you can get directly involved in the climate change campaign. You can email your MP, asking him to contact Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, to demand that he takes decisive action at the Copenhagen conference. Or, you can join us at the Wave march, the UK’s biggest ever protest in support of action on climate change, in London on Saturday 5 December. If you can’t make it, why not paint your hands blue and send us your photos, which we’ll bring to the march.

And if you’re feeling particularly inspired, Tagd has details on how you can organise a ‘Wave Day’ with your school, youth group or your friends. We’ve produced a downloadable climate change resource pack, filled with tips and ideas on how you can take action on climate change.

So there you have it. But now we’ve done our bit and got you up to speed on Tagd’s climate campaign work, why not get blogging yourself? If you’re passionate about this issue, you couldn’t choose a better day to start. And even if you don’t have a blog, you can do a post on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.

For more inspiration, check out our tips on writing an article and getting creative.

7 Weeks To Copenhagen

The Copenhagen 4's second preparation weekend at the UNICEF offices, London

The Copenhagen 4 getting involved with UNICEF's call to action for the Wave.

After a long week at school, we all arrived in London pretty tired. But after a good night’s sleep and some nice toast – according to Luke and Cressie – we were raring to get on with our jam-packed weekend’s worth of work.

We kicked off Saturday with some exciting, if still slightly vague news about the Forum, including where we will be staying in Copenhagen and details about the workshops. Finding out that we will be working from 8am to 9pm every day, excluding socialising time, was a bit of an eye-opener! It was also great to have a chat with a couple of the 2009 J8 team about their experience and the sort of things we can expect to happen at the Forum.

We were really lucky to receive media training and blogging and videoing tips from the UNICEF staff. Whilst Cressie had a tendency to laugh uncontrollably when in front of the camera – to the amusement of the rest of the team - I think we will be experts at expressing our key messages in the future. Exhausted and in need of food, we headed over to South Bank for a lovely meal and walked along the river, like true tourists!

On Sunday we had the opportunity to really work together as a team, and I can now safely say that the Copenhagen 4 is ready to face all the challenges that the world can throw at us! Firstly, we prepared for our meeting with David Kidney, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Department of Energy and Climate Change, and thought about what we’d like to get out of the discussion. We are also planning to write a letter to Gordon Brown, praising him for committing to go to Copenhagen, whilst also seeing whether he would like to meet with us in the future.

The final thing to do was to start thinking about what we could do for the UK presentation that we will present to our Copenhagen partner school at the Forum. All plans are under wraps, but all I’ll say is that it includes a sheep (whatever Luke says!), dodgy accents and certain chaos!

Watch this space.

Katie x

Hello from the Copenhagen 4's Cressie

Cressie, 15, from near Gloucester, is one of the four winners of UNICEF's Big Climate Callout competition, selected to represent the UK at the Copenhagen Children's Climate Forum in December.

The first prep meeting we had in August was a great success. During the weekend we drew up targets and action points as well as assigning areas of responsibility. Since then I have been busy organising presentations in local primary and secondary schools, explaining how climate change is a children’s rights issue and why UNICEF is so involved.

Hopefully I will run a ‘green day’ at my school, where we will dress up in green to help raise awareness of Copenhagen and being environmentally friendly in general.

As I am passionate about trying to give being ‘green’ a modern, chic appeal, so as to get more people involved and engaged, I have been busy designing a t-shirt with some friends. At the moment I am spending lots of time working on my portfolio and doing comparative research for the t- shirt - but hopefully a prototype will be made soon!

As usual I am looking for articles and reading about climate change in the press to ensure I am up to speed with all that is going on in the run up to Copenhagen. As the Children’s Climate Forum looms ever closer, I continue to become more excited and equally determined to make it worthwhile, helping raise awareness in both my local area and nationally.

Hello from the Copenhagen 4's Luke

Luke, 17, from Newcastle, is one of the four winners of UNICEF's Big Climate Callout competition, selected to represent the UK at the Copenhagen Children's Climate Forum in December.

Hi Everyone! As this is my first ever blog post, this is a pretty weird experience for me. Then again, the whole of the Copenhagen prep is a pretty steep learning curve - and I think the purpose of this blog is to keep anyone who's interested in what we've been doing so far.

After our first meeting in London (which was great fun and told us a lot more about what we'll be doing) I've been put in charge of the campaigns that we are running ourselves.

The main one is to get Gordon Brown to attend the Copenhagen conference. We think this is really important as it will show the world that the UK prioritises combating climate change and will help the push towards a strong, fair deal at Copenhagen in December (anyway, we're going, so why on Earth can't he?!)

If you'd like to sign up to this petition, you can do so here. We're also trying to get a petition on the Number 10 website, which we'll try to advertise as well. The hope is to get a large number of people behind us, so that when we send a letter to the PM, or if we get to meet with a minister, we can say that we have LOADS of young people in support of our petition, which will be alot more impressive!

I'm starting to get really excited about going to Copenhagen now - it's going to be such an awesome experience, meeting people from around the globe with so very different climate change experiences to ours. The whole thing has got me a lot more enthused about climate-related activities and has spurred me on to get stuck in again!

Well thanks for reading this, and I hope we'll be able to let you know about everything we're doing in the future, and about how you can get involved in some nice, tame, climate activism!

Hello from the Copenhagen 4's Katie

Katie Haywood, 17, from Worcester, is one of the four winners of UNICEF's Big Climate Callout competition, selected to represent the UK at the Copenhagen Children's Climate Forum in December.

The past few weeks have been pretty frantic for me, especially since I got back to school and started studying for my AS Levels. There are so many fantastic campaigns leading up to Copenhagen that I couldn’t resist getting involved!

Firstly, I have been recruiting for Power Shift, an environmental conference for young people, which is being held in London in October. Secondly, I have been busy organising my own 350 event, called Hand’s Up! The idea is to collect 350 hand prints from individuals and organisations around my local community, which I am going to display in the city centre on 24 October, the global Day of Action.

My role within the Copenhagen team is to facilitate our involvement in such campaigns, and raise awareness of them among other young people. My county council have also helped me arrange a meeting with local ecoschools committees, where we will discuss messages that I can take to the Children’s Climate Forum.

The first preparation weekend at the UNICEF head office was great fun, and it was really nice to spend time with the rest of the team. We’ve already got really exciting plans for our work leading up to Copenhagen, including launching a campaign to get Gordon Brown to go the Conference.

I still can’t quite believe what an amazing opportunity we have been given. It just shows that the world is starting to take young people seriously, so make sure you are shouting about what really matters to you!

Hello from the Copenhagen 4's Graeme

Graeme, 14, from Glasgow, is one of the four winners of UNICEF's Big Climate Callout competition, selected to represent the UK at the Copenhagen Children's Climate Forum in December.

Hello, my Name is Graeme McGhee I am 14 years old and I come from the city of Glasgow in Bonnie Scotland. I am always up for a laugh, love playing badminton and love watching the comedy panel show Mock the Week XD.

I am one of the four young people who will be representing the views of young people at the Children's Climate Change Forum in Copenhagen this December. I would like to think that I know a fair amount about climate change as well as politics. Climate change is a serious issue that we have to act upon now and, as a generation, we must work together to prevent this problem in the future too.

I have already set up a few events and discussions locally and citywide that have sparked interest on this issue throughout Scotland as well. At the start of October I will hopefully be interviewing the Scottish Minister for Finance and Sustainable Growth (John Swinney) about climate change.

Although we are only young citizens we can still make an impact on the world around us and influence decision-making all over the world.