Climate change and global warming is the most urgent challenge that the world faces – and the time for action is now. In 2008 the British Council started running the European element of our global climate programme – the Challenge Europe.

This project is about recruiting and supporting a group of young European people who want to make a real difference to the climate debate in their countries and internationally.

Recent pan-European research undertaken by the British Council among young people has shown that 50 per cent of them claimed that environmental and climate issues are among their top world concerns – the highest response to an issue in the whole survey.

The issues that they will explore will have local relevance and could include:

			transport
			consumer behaviour
			economics and taxation
			the built environments
			energy use.

We will organise support and development activities for these young people to challenge the way they think about certain issues and stimulate new thinking. These activities will include opportunities to learn from experts and leaders across Europe and visits to centres of good practice.

We are running the project across Europe, beginning in the Nordics, the Baltics, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Ukraine, Russia and the UK.

We are organising and running the project in partnership with organisations and public figures; these partners understand the need to act now in order to make a difference, and are widely known and respected for their commitment to climate change issues.

You can read more about the Climate Advocates and their planned projects on the public website of the project.