Reflecting on the Pupil Power Roadshow at COP26

In November 2021, PPL PWR and the UK Schools Sustainability Network brought the youth voice to COP26 in Glasgow. Yi Zhang was part of the PPL PWR team and reflects on her experience:

"Participating in Pupil Power Road Show at COP26 Green Zone exhibition as a communication officer and event assistant offered me an invaluable opportunity to develop my personal skills, both professional and transferable. The legacy from this experience will have long-term benefits to my career and personal development.

As one of the core values of PPL PWR, empowerment is always at the central stage of the whole project, from inspiring students to explore their local green space, to delivering scientific principles about energy storage and unravelling climate anxiety. Throughout the entire project, I was also remarkably empowered by collaborating with PPL PWR colleagues and interacting with students.

In the pre-COP training programmes prepared by my colleagues, complex concepts such as hydrogen cell and energy storage are demonstrated concisely, which didn't only fill my knowledge gaps but also motivated me to seek further insights into the renewable energy industry.

Besides, from the "Value our green space" session, the solid emotional linkage conveyed by the videos shot by students drove me to reconsider the vital role of green space to people who come from different backgrounds and the entire community. Although the area I live in doesn't have the luxury of lush forest, knowing how green spaces accompany students from their videos, as well as the significance of rewilding that I obtained from videos produced by partner organisations, encourages me to engage in designing and building community gardens in my neighbourhood and bring the magic power of green spaces to more people.

Throughout the project, students' compassion and creativity truly amazed me. Learning about climate change and its continuously exacerbating impacts on next generations is unquestionably filled with doom and gloom; however, seeing how students endeavoured to reverse the status energises me to create more positive influences on the environment and society in my future career.

In executing tasks regarding communication and marketing in Pupil Power Road Show, my transferable skills, including project management, communication, problem-solving, time management, are significantly improved. Considering the tight deadlines and the large number of partners involved in this project, efficiently and effectively communicating with people from different organisations is crucial in the project, especially when creating our page in the Digital Green Zone, in which details of media assets from a range of sources were required to be settled. In addition, managing PPL PWR's communication channels also sharpened my time management skills as the conference progressed swiftly. The competencies I honed from the project will have long-lasting benefits to my personal development.

None of the achievement and excitement at COP26 would happen without my fantastic colleagues from PPL PWR. They spared no effort to contribute their expertise in the project and support each other whenever needed.

I appreciate all skills and relationships I developed throughout Pupil Power Road Show; the experience of involving in the project is undeniably a precious highlight in my journey of combating climate change with the community."

Get in touch to find out how you can join the PPL PWR Community...