Sarah Leedham, Manager at Foxearth Meadows Nature Reserve, shares this ray of hope for circulation/action. 

It is from Harriet Howe, Senior Advisor, Business and Public Engagement, in the UK’s  Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

We are excited to announce that yesterday we launched the start of a recruitment process for our Youth Climate and Nature Panel, alongside a call for ideas from younger children to help inform the work and priorities of the panel.

The Youth and Climate and Nature Panel was a commitment in the Energising Britain public participation plan published last year. It aims to ensure that young people’s voices are at the heart of climate and nature policy. To achieve this, we are looking to bring together around 15 passionate young people from across the UK from a wide range of backgrounds who want to help shape the future of climate and nature policy, share their views, and inspire wider action.

Our update forms part of government communications and engagement this week focused on climate and nature action, repeating last year’s activities. We intend to run a recruitment process for the panel over the summer involving the open call for 16-18 year olds that we launched on GOV.UK, alongside targeted engagement via external organisations that we believe will help us reach a diverse range of young people who can bring different perspectives to the work of the panel that are aligned with DESNZ and Defra priorities. You can find more information on the panel and recruitment process here: Youth Climate and Nature Panel – GOV.UK  

We would greatly appreciate it if you could share this opportunity with your networks – we are looking for a wide range of young people with different experiences and priorities to apply. Minister White has written an op-ed for Mumsnet to promote this opportunity: Guest Post: “”Listening to young people isn’t an optional extra” – Government launches new Youth Climate and Nature Panel | Mumsnet, as well as posting on LinkedIn: Post | LinkedIn and Instagram: Instagram.  

Yesterday we also launched ‘Young Voices for Climate and Nature’, aimed at children under the age of 16. This encourages school or community groups to submit their ideas on the climate and nature issues that are important to them that the panel could consider. The GOV.UK page provides further details on this: Young Voices for Climate and Nature – GOV.UK.

Kind regards, 

Harriet ??

Harriet Howe (she/her)Business & Public Engagement for Net ZeroNet Zero Strategy DirectorateMobile: 077416889073 Whitehall Place, London, SW1A 2AW