Running a week-long training workshop for the British Council in Mukteshwar, a small town in the foothills of the Himalayas in India, was for us a true ‘once a lifetime experience’.

The workshop, organised by the British Council and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), was with the Indian and Sri Lankan Climate Champions. They are an inspiring and exceptional group of young people aged 17-22 who are raising awareness and delivering projects to mitigate the effects of climate change. The workshop involved team building activities, project planning, communication skills sessions, climate speed dating and networking bingo.

The venue in the beautiful foothills of the Himalayas was the perfect setting to inspire action on climate change and contributed greatly to the success of the workshop. It was run on sustainable technologies, which was admirable (although sometimes the lights and taps switched themselves on for no reason, which amused us greatly). We had included lots of improvements since the first Climate Champions workshop we ran in Edinburgh in February. The five champions from India and Sri Lanka that had been in Edinburgh also attended and it was good to catch up with them and hear about how their projects are progressing. All the Indian and Sri Lankan Champions are superintelligent and the speed at which they grasped the tasks we set them kept us on our toes for the whole week.

We also learnt a lot — especially from a fascinating session on blogging with Kiruba Shankar, founder CEO of Business Blogging Pvt  Ltd. We made a note of all his tips! We also learnt much about cultural differences which were often highlighted by our unsuspecting  Britishness. The Champions called us ‘Laura ma’am’ and ‘Sarah ma’am’ and we kept referring to each other as ma’am – much to the  Champions’ amusement. Our new names have stuck: back in the UK we are still calling one another ma’am!

It was the first visit to India for both of us and we found it to be a wonderful and captivating country, which is just as well given we spent a total of 22 hours on a bus travelling to and from Delhi and Mukteshwar. We were struck by the sheer number of people. The energy consumption needed to satisfy the developing economy and society is huge. Littering is also a problem and the Indian champions explained how big a task it was to change the culture to one that greatly valued the environment. We visited a picturesque organic farm that grew herbs for teas and essential oils in the Himalayas; even there, litter was everywhere. The Indian and Sri Lankan champions certainly have a difficult task ahead, but we strongly believe that if any group can make a real change, it is them.

Laura Grant from Laura Grant Associates, London, and Sarah Jenkins from Jenesys Associates, South Wales, UK facilitated the workshop for the Climate Champions.

The International Climate Champions programme is in its second year now has over 70 champions in India and Sri Lanka working on various climate change projects in their institutions and communities. Find out more on the Climate Champions and their projects.