THE CLIMATE emergency is high on the agenda at Rugby High School as the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) takes place in Glasgow.
The school says it wants to ‘engage, inspire and educate’ its students with a diverse schedule of COP26 events during the conference.
They include a workshop to find out how biology can help some of the challenges of climate change, from carbon capture to new types of ‘plastic’; a politics seminar to discuss how young people can get involved in trying to change the laws around climate change; an exploration of how indigenous cosmologies understand the place of humankind in nature; and workshops to consider how sustainability at school can be improved.
A group of Year 13 students are running a Seminar for Year 7 students to keep them updated of the decisions made in Glasgow that will affect them – and will then test their COP26 knowledge with a quiz.
They will also be running an art workshop in which Year 8 students will be able to express their ideas about climate change.
The school’s Head of Politics Sophie Price said: “Our aim is to help mobilise students, to enable them to have a voice and understand they can make their voice heard.
“Even though young people can’t vote, they can have a say in their future. They can participate in trying to persuade politicians to act and to put in place measures to reverse climate change.”
Speaking at COP26, Sir David Attenborough said the fate of future generations was at risk, and that the people who would be most affected by climate change were the ‘young people alive today’.
And Prince William said to young people: “Please keep learning, keep demanding change, and don’t give up hope. We will rise to these challenges.”
COP26 runs until November 12.
