Ellie Champions Pembrokeshire's Climate Change (From Western Telegraph)

Pembrokeshire's Climate Change Champion Ellie Meopham

10:40am Monday 14th March 2011 in Climate Change Champion By Ellie Meopham

Hi, I’m 15-year-old Ellie Meopham from Goodwick and I’ve just become one of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Climate Change Champions.

I will be spending a year ‘in office’ raising awareness of how my friends, family and community can reduce their carbon footprint through 11 simple actions. Collectively these can make a difference and hopefully help us towards reaching the Welsh Assembly Government’s target for Wales of 3% carbon emission reductions each year.

When I was younger I didn’t really know much about climate change and thought it was something that adults had to deal with. As I got older, climate change began to come alive to me. It is obvious now that it is a real threat which was not just going to affect people over 18, but will affect me too. I began to switch lights off when I wasn't in the room, and to take showers instead of baths.

I studied climate change in geography and it scared me to see everything that could happen if we don’t change the way we live – we need to live more sustainably and reduce the amount of energy we waste.

Each month I will update you on my progress and set you a challenge that you can try doing at home to reduce your own carbon footprint.

So for this month what don’t you try and save water and energy by doing one less clothes wash a week – and make sure they’re not half loads! Why not make it official and pledge online www.walescarbonfootprint.gov.uk/11actions.

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