Cressida, Katie, Graem and Luke are all members of the Copenhagen 4, a team of young people from the UK who attended UNICEF ‘s Children’s Climate Forum (CCF) in Copenhagen in December 2009. The forum saw 164 young people from 44 countries getting together to discuss climate change and produce a declaration that was then presented to Connie Hedegaard.

As a team they have met with Ed Milliband and David Kidney to discuss climate change issues and the importance of listening to young people’s voices on the matter.

Cressida is 16 from Gloucestershire.

Cressida has been working in Gloucestershire to give talks in schools about the declaration which resulted from CCF – this has included both primary and secondary schools. Her presentation has included practical tips on what young people can do to take action on climate change in 2010, based on the recommendations of the doctrine.

She has also been involved in developing her own ‘Don’t Bake the Planet’ campaign which focuses on encouraging young people to fundraise for climate change projects and raise awareness of climate change as a children’s rights issue- her Facebook group for this currently has 1,160 members.

Cressida was selected as one of 5 delegates from the 164 attending to be the press spokesperson for the Forum and gave several international media interviews when in Copenhagen.

Katie is 18 from Worcester.

Katie has been a climate change activist since she was 16. She is involved with a local project called the Hive and together with other young volunteers is working with local authorities and professionals to build a completely self-sufficient eco-community centre in her city.

She has also been volunteering on climate change for the National Trust and in 2009 she won an award for the Eco category at the vInspired National Awards.

She now sits on the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) Youth Panel and coordinates the communication between UNICEF HQ in New York and the young people who attended the Children’s Climate Forum who now form UNICEF’s Climate Ambassadors.

Luke Hughes is 18 from Newcastle.

Luke has been working to co-ordinate a ‘COP Response Group’ consisting of delegates from the CCF who worked together online to create a press release about their reaction to the Copenhagen Accords as delegates of the CCF. The group consisted of delegates from 20 countries including UK, US, India, China, Hong Kong, Maldives and New Zealand. The response can be seen at http://www.tagd.org.uk/Latest/News/CopResponse.aspx and http://www.unicef.org.uk/press/news_detail_full_story.asp?news_id=1447 . The response group is also hoping to develop online campaigns in 2010 around key climate change issues.

Luke has also been continuing his work with Newcastle University, working on the university’s research project to map and calculate the carbon footprint of Newcastle, to help develop strategies to reduce it in future. He also sits on the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s Youth Panel with Katie.

Graeme McGhee is 15, from Glasgow.

Graeme has been working with the Scottish Youth Parliament in his role as SYP member for Pollock in Glasgow. He met with John Swinney, MSP in October 2009 to talk about the role of young people in the climate change debate in Scotland. He has also been teaming up with various Glasgow members of the Scottish Youth Parliament to run a campaign to encourage the local council to make recycling facilities more available in highly populated “built up” areas, specifically areas with high rise flat housing. Graeme will also be visiting Malawi with the SYP in summer 2010, and has a specific interest in seeing how climate change is affecting young people there.