Joint Statement from Climate Week Youth Award Nominees

Updates: This statement has been used by The Guardian and was mentioned in The Telegraph.  I also want to highlight Casper ter Kuile’s more positive perspective on Climate Week, which I had not considered until I spoke with an RBS representative at the event.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tom Youngman (07757577910) or Niel Bowerman (07912614541)

Ellie Hopkins, Niel Bowerman and Tom Youngman are three of the nominees short-listed for Climate Week’s Most Inspirational Young Person Award.

Today these three nominees made the following joint statement:

“As young people deeply concerned by climate change, we support the Climate Week initiative. Connecting people through positive, practical action in their communities is essential to minimise climate change. However we believe Climate Week’s choice of sponsors seriously undermines its aims.

“In the case of RBS in particular, we feel that sponsoring this event without withdrawing their heavy investment in Alberta’s massively damaging tar sands development is grossly hypocritical. We echo many others in calling on RBS to divest from this practice.

“We are pleased that the sponsors appear to want to take action on climate change.  However, businesses must know that only lasting systemic change to their operations can earn them an image of sustainability. Mere endorsement is not enough.  We hope the sponsors of Climate Week use this opportunity to reinforce their commitments to sustainable practice. As such we invite Tesco, the sponsors of the youth award, to meet with us or other young people to consider our suggestions for improving sustainability.

“The tools to create a sustainable economy already exist but what we have yet to see is the political and corporate will to use them. We will not wait for those unwilling to lead into a just, sustainable future.

“Where there is willingness to create true change, we welcome big business to join the drive towards our common goal of a better future for everyone. Young people are already shaping their own futures in a low-carbon economy, whether these companies can keep up is something we are eager to see.”

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Press contacts:

Notes to editors:

1. Climate Week is a national event aiming to inspire millions across the UK to combat climate change.
2. Climate Week is sponsored by Royal Bank of Scotland, which finances more fossil fuel extraction than any other UK bank.  Until recently, RBS promoted itself as the ‘Oil and Gas Bank’.  RBS is currently financing environmentally destructive tar sands mining in Alberta, Canada.
3. Ellie Hopkins is the Co-Director of, and a full-time volunteer with the UK Youth Climate Coalition (ukycc.org). Niel Bowerman is a research climate scientist at the University of Oxford. Tom Youngman is a local environmental activist from Bath, the co-founder of Green Vision: The Bath Youth Climate Movement and a member of the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s Youth Advisory Panel.