Young 'greenies' off to Copenhagen

Two young women with Nelson links will travel to Denmark in December to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

Nayland College student Brittany Packer and former Nelson College for Girls student Claire Waghorn are both members of the New Zealand Youth Delegation, a 12-strong delegation attending the event.

Guided by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the conference has run annually since 1995. This year it aims to develop a new international environmental treaty to succeed the existing Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.

Brittany, 18, is in her final year at Nayland College and has been fund-raising for her trip.

A Royal Society travel fund grant covered 80 per cent of her travel expenses but she still had "a lot more" to raise, she said.

She was excited about attending the conference and seeing world leaders such as United States President Barack Obama speak on global issues.

She said it would also be interesting to be at the centre of political action for a month. There had been discussion on possible protest action.

Miss Packer aimed to bring issues raised at the conference back to Nelson to encourage climate change action at home.

"It's how we can take this big government action and take it back to the grass-roots level."

Miss Waghorn, now a final-year law student at the University of Canterbury, said she remembered doing "green things" as a toddler at a Nelson Montessori pre-school and was now a "massive greenie".

As a former boarder at Nelson College for Girls, she joined the school's branch of Amnesty International.

Her focus on human rights forced her into green politics, she said.

"It just became overwhelmingly obvious that if you care about people, you have to care about the environment too. They are inextricably linked.

"You can't have people without the planet, and we need to start acting more sustainably, with long-term goals and solutions."

Those wishing to share the Copenhagen experience can read the group's blogs at youthdelegation.org.nz.

- © Fairfax NZ News