London children 'thinking globally about climate change' » Environment » 24dash.com

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, today (Wednesday) announced the winning schools of the annual London Schools Environment Awards. In its fourth year, a record 752 schools across the capital registered for the awards scheme.

The Mayor was joined this morning by TV presenter and wildlife photographer Chris Packham at a reception in City Hall where 65 London schools were praised and celebrated for their work for the environment.

The London Schools Environment Awards were set up by the Mayor of London and the 28 Capital Standards boroughs. They are run in partnership with the principal sponsor, Thames Water and are also supported by EDF Energy and the Department for Education and Skills.

The Awards were set up to develop children's sense of responsibility for their environment and the focus for learning this year has been about climate change.

The winning schools from each of London's boroughs will receive cash prizes of £2000 and £1000, at the London Schools Environment Awards ceremony. The categories that the schools focus on are water, litter and local environment quality, waste and recycling, energy, transport to school and biodiversity.

To make it easy for children to learn about how renewable energy can act as a way to combat climate change, each school that signed up to the awards scheme received a toolbox, which included a solar educational kit, which demonstrates how solar energy works. The Department for Education and Skills provided a grant to help fund the toolbox to support the scheme as part of the Year of Action on Sustainable Schools.

Climate change is a key issue for London and one of the Mayor's dominant priorities. This was demonstrated with the launch of the London Climate Change Action Plan that sets out the beginning of a comprehensive programme to tackle climate change in London over the next twenty years.

The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said: "It is important that children learn at an early age how to protect the environment by being aware of the threats posed by climate change and what they can do to make a difference. The age of an individual Londoner does not alter the impact that they can have on climate change - young and old are involved in the fight against global and local emissions. By educating children at primary school level, the London Schools Environment Awards foster children's sense of responsibility for their environment and at the same time influences the next generation's consciousness.

"I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Capital Standards boroughs, Thames Water, EDF Energy and Department for Education and Skills for their support for the London Schools Environment Awards."

Richard Aylard, Director of External Affairs and Sustainability at Thames Water, said: "Thames Water is delighted to support these awards.  By raising awareness of climate change and other key environmental issues in schools, we hope that young people will be motivated to take action now to protect their environment and help preserve it for future generations.

"We all have to take action now to deal with climate change.  As a company, Thames Water is acting now to reduce our emissions and develop our use of renewable energy as part of our work towards a low carbon future. We are also adapting to the effects of climate change not only by educating our customers to use water efficiently, but through long-term investment and planning to ensure our assets can operate fully under the changing conditions."

Chris Packham said: "The London Schools Environment Awards are going from strength to strength each year and I am thrilled to be a part of them this year. It is really encouraging to see the variety and detail of projects that children from across the capital have been involved in to improve the environment and combat climate change. This group of children is the future generation and it is great that they are concerned about the environment now and being proactive in tackling climate change."

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