Caroline has raised a campaign by Eastbourne’s young people on climate change and the environment with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at The House of Commons.
In 1995, Eastbourne created and hosted the UN Children’s Conference on the Environment.
This remarkable event, the first of its kind, was centred at The Congress Theatre and saw over 800 children from 92 countries contribute to a three-day conference which garnered international media attention.
To mark the 25th anniversary of the Conference, local children expressed their own hopes and fears for our natural world by creating over 5,500 paper birds which flew to CoP26, and from there around the world.
“It’s particularly meaningful that the children chose to convey their messages about the climate and the environment on the wings of these beautiful birds,” said Caroline, “and I pay tribute to all our young people who were part of this project.
“It was for them that I championed the new Natural History GCSE last year and I am delighted that it won support from the Department of Education and will be introduced into the curriculum. I led the debate for it in Parliament, but it had some pretty big backers in the wider world like Bear Grylls and David Attenborough!
"I take a copy of the government’s groundbreaking Environment Act 2021 to schools when I visit – I don’t read its 200 pages, but I share the headlines.
“Young people want to see that commitment and have their voices heard.
“On this occasion, their voices were translated to bird song and I was only too proud to be part of that.
“The Prime Minister was impressed by the children’s passion for the natural world and their eloquence in expressing that. His young daughters inspire him, I know, so these messages will have definitely resonated with him.”
