Pupils from several Solihull schools recently had the opportunity to ask Councillor Ian Courts a series of questions about climate change. The students' carefully constructed questions covered a range of themes, from tree planting to reducing waste.
After a successful model COP26 summit, pupils from Tudor Grange Academy, Arden Academy and Langley School stayed behind to express their most pressing climate change queries. Questions included ‘how is Solihull going to adapt to the effects of climate change?’ and ‘how do you propose on cutting down the carbon that Solihull is releasing?’ This year the students spoke in front of the camera, with Councillor Courts unable to attend in person after contracting COVID-19 and safely isolating at home.
A few weeks after the student summit, Councillor Courts addressed all of the students’ queries in detail, touching on a range of Council projects directly tackling the climate emergency.
Councillor Ian Courts, Leader of Solihull Council said:
“Despite not being able to attend the Solihull Schools Climate Conference in person this year, it was a privilege to be able to respond to the questions on behalf of the Council. The thought-provoking questions sent in by pupils really demonstrates just how serious the youth of today are about tackling climate change.
“It’s really heartening to see future generations engaging with locally elected decision makers. It’s a key skill to have as they progress through school and eventually into the workplace. One day it’ll be them making those critical decisions and I have no doubt we have some fantastic future leaders coming through our schools.
“In the wake of COP26 it’s an incredibly pivotal moment for Solihull’s future. In the Q&A video I talk about the multitude of climate change initiatives the Council is leading on. There’s so much to mention I couldn’t possibly cover it in a couple of sentences. However, please do take the time to watch the video, hear what our passionate students have to say and find out how we plan to make Solihull a cleaner, greener place to live.”
Discover more about the key role education has to play in addressing Solihull’s climate emergency by listening to episode one of our podcast series ‘Courts on Climate Change’. The episode ‘Education’ further elaborates on the wide-ranging work Solihull Council is doing with local schools around climate change and sustainability.
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