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Weekly Short
10 September, 2021
In the run up to this year’s COP26 in November, a range of resources are springing up which aim to engage children – encouraging them to come up with solutions and make their voice heard in holding world leaders to account.
WWF’s ‘Our Climate Our Future’ COP26 programme culminates on 5th November with a Forest of Promises. Young people from across the UK will display leaves at the conference with climate commitments written on them. One side will feature a personal commitment while the reverse will show a promise, they want to see made by world leaders.
Brands are also getting involved. Natwest has just launched the MoneySense Climate Savers competition which explores the links between money and climate change. Young people are being invited to design a Top Trumps card showing an action individuals can take to help address climate change, and the 26 winning designs will be used to create a special pack which will be distributed at the conference. And Lego has developed resources for their Building Instructions for a Better World workshop where, through collaborative discussion, children generate instructions for world leaders to tackle climate change. These instructions will be collated by Lego into a booklet to be shared at COP26.
Getting children informed and interested in climate action has already shown to have a huge impact, with the Fridays for Future movement becoming a huge voice for change and empowering young people is likely to become an increasingly integral part of corporate sustainability efforts over the coming years. And initiatives from the likes of Natwest and Lego at COP26 will, at the very least, help world leaders to keep in mind the people who will be most affected in the future, by the decisions they make today.
By Jessie Smith