Voices for a Green Future
We asked school pupils across the UK to share their hopes and ambitions for a greener, more sustainable future at the United Nations COP26 climate conference this November.
Every voice matters in the fight against climate change, but young people’s futures will be most affected by the decisions and actions we make today.
We gave four school pupils a platform to share their visions for a greener future, in a speech that was premiered digitally to world leaders – and the world – at COP26.
Voices For A Green Future: Children’s messages to world leaders at COP26
Watch the winners’ film
The Voices for a Green Future winners’ film is available to watch, following its premiere at COP26.
To watch the film, as well as the individual speeches in full, visit this page or head to our YouTube channel.
Voices for a Green Future: the winners
Out of hundreds of entries submitted by children from over 300 schools across the country, we’ve now selected the four winners of our Voices for a Green Future competition.
They were chosen by a judging panel that included TV presenter Helen Skelton, Chief Engineer of National Grid David Wright and MPs Ruth Jones and Philip Dunne.
Katya’s speech for COP26
Katya, 13 from North London
Katya highlighted the importance of education, asking that climate change be taught alongside geography and science curriculums in the UK and even suggested launching an eco-app that would track how green your lifestyle is.
Watch Katya's film
Emily’s speech for COP26
Emily, 13 from Doncaster
Emily believes ‘climate change is our fault’ and she proposed encouraging people to grow more of their own foods and for large companies to switch to electric vehicles and 100% sustainable packaging.
Watch Emily's film
Guillaume’s speech for COP26
Guillaume, 11 from West London
Guillaume insisted he would make every other building a green building and encouraged developing more energy efficient homes across the country. He wants supermarkets to ‘become super at no plastic creation’ given they help contribute to half of the plastic waste in UK households.
Watch Guillaume's film
Zaara’s speech for COP26
Zaara, 9 from Birmingham
Zaara wanted regular one-hour energy shutdowns to make savings, as well as the country only drawing electricity from renewable energy. Closing with a plea to world leaders, she stated "we have less than two decades to solve climate change and help the planet".
Watch Zaara's filmWhat did they win?
The four winners each received these prizes:
1. A VIP video shoot with a video production company to turn their winning speech and ideas into a short film. This will be premiered at COP26 in front of world leaders on 5 November.
2. A £5,000 grant for their school to put towards initiatives focused on climate change and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
3. £150 of National Book Tokens and science related toys for themselves.
The runners up
The six runners-up were awarded a £50 National Book Tokens gift card:
- Callum, 15 from Kingston, Greater London
- Katia, 15 from Sheffield
- Isabelle, 12 from Altrincham, Manchester
- Lily, 10 from Swansea
- Sylvie, 8 from Hackney, London
- Finn, 8 from Stratford-upon-Avon
Educational Resources
National Grid has partnered with Sustainability First - an educational charity dedicated to advancing knowledge of sustainability - to put together a range of interdisciplinary educational primary school workshops on sustainability and climate change, called ‘Together for a fair climate future’. There are videos and workshop instructions on various topics such as ‘Let’s get wise about waste’ and ‘Our changing world’.
“Where does electricity come from?” with Maddie Moate
This video is ideal for helping kids of primary school age to understand some of the topics surrounding climate change and electricity.
Children’s TV presenters Maddie Moate and Greg Foot discover how electricity gets around the UK, and what “Net Zero” actually means.