Trina Talukdar, Bangalore

The ICC workshop was inaugurated on 22 February with a burst of color as each of the 35 participants from 14 countries displayed an object that represented their country or their Climate Change project. Hagar from Gloucestershire had a toy bicycle to signify his project of promoting non-polluting bicycles as a popular means of transport. Representing France, Eva put up pictures of the Alps, 20 years earlier and in recent times, showing the meltdown of the snow cover. Julias’ T-shirt, with a picture of Barack Obama on it, entitled HOPE was not only a potent symbol of the new era in America, but every Climate Champions motto. Personally, I learnt most from our visit to the Scottish parliament, where we had the pleasure of a conversation with the Scottish Minister for transport and environment. It made me realise that the government and other authorities are accessible to the youth, for them to be able to express their ideas and have them included in state policy.

With all the hard work during the day and inter-country, inter-continental bonding over innumerable chats, games and dance sessions at night, we hardly noticed when the seminar came to an end. Each of us had to write a postcard to ourselves, encouraging ourselves not to lose hope and be insistent till our projects succeeded. In three months, when we all might have forgotten our promise and possibly lost zest in our projects, the postcards will be delivered home with the purpose of reviving our commitment with newfound passion.

Divykriti Chopra, Chandigarh

At the start of the workshop, Najib Ibnu, Climate Champion, Indonesia, delivered a motivating lecture on climate change, its consequences and the way the youth can tackle it. Then all the countries were introduced and each participant asked to make a pledge for the duration of the workshop. Pledge bands were distributed and our pledges ranged from using only recycled paper to taking cold showers.

The sessions forced us to think beyond our horizons. Planning, communicating and networking were three critical target areas. We also got acquainted with other projects, which fell into three main categories; recycling, transport and planting trees along with spreading awareness.

In different parts of the world people are facing the same problems and surprisingly the youth had come up with similar ideas to counteract the problems. Numerous lectures by experts were organised for our benefit. Among them, Dr. Dave Reay, lecturer from the University of Edinburgh, spoke on carbon management and Jonathan Sanderson, media consultant, spoke on web reporting.

On the final day we presented a summary of our projects. Dr. David Viner, Programme Leader for Climate Change, British Council, and Dr James M Mair from Heriot Watt University reviewed and evaluated our presentations. Finally the time came for the last goodbye. I boarded the plane with hope and a promise to materialise my project and work on it sincerely.

Ayan Sengupta, Kolkata

Do you know that most people in Russia think that climate change is going to be beneficial and that they should actually be happy that the planet is heating up? Shocked? Read on.

Russia is a cold country and every year they spend huge amounts of money on energy for heating their homes. If the average temperature goes up by 5 degrees, they save a lot.

What was most interesting for me at the workshop was to understand different perceptions of Climate Change from across the world. The focus was on how we can make our projects viable and really effective. We learnt some amazing techniques of action planning, measuring impacts, incentive designing and peer reviewing. In the whole process, we were constantly being evaluated and given feedback by peers and specialists.

The most important learning was the various techniques of making one’s ideas simple, effective and interesting. This is very useful for me as my project focuses on developing ‘sticky with hope and a promise to materialise my project and work on it sincerely.

The uniqueness of my project is the use of the sociological theories of “Social Epidemics” to achieve greater impact with limited resources. I will conclude with two lines from a very popular song by Tagore interpreted it in my own way. “Amra sobai raja amader ei rajar rajotte, noile mora rajar sone milbo ki sorte” Which means, we are and we must all be kings (read champions),  otherwise, how can we work on the same stand with the real kings?

Nirupama Nathan, Mumbai

The workshop was the perfect way to get youth from around the world to network, put forth ideas before an international audience, share thoughts, and join hands for a common cause. The highlight was learning how important it is to tackle the issue of environmental change caused globally and in inspiring each other to save our planet from certain doom. A trip to the Scottish Parliament, including the meeting with the Scottish Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change, Stewart Stevenson, and other field visits provided us with helpful information on what is being done around the world to tackle climate change issues in ways that can be implemented on a day-to-day basis. Motivating each other and learning that its our responsibility to undo the harm we’ve done to ourselves were only some of the key activities of the workshop. Each one of us has a duty to care, nurture and help our planet thrive. If all of us could realize that and make an effort, a small effort on our part to help this cause, our planet could be saved from the disastrous fate that awaits us.

Rochelle Vandort, Sri Lanka

Changes in our planet’s climate happen every passing minute. All of us knowingly or unknowingly contribute to this change; and it is our responsibility to adapt and mitigate the risks of climate change. It was the ICC 2009 competition that brought out ‘my role’ to protect ‘my planet’. I wish to launch my project ‘Grow a Green Barrier’ campaign in the near future. It would be my effort to protect the coastline of my island nation; Sri Lanka from ravaging storms and cyclones caused due to climate change.

Winning the title of ICC gave me the motivation needed and the workshop on project management became the launch pad. The workshop was packed with fun filled activities and interactive learning that gave every climate champion the skills to successfully carry out their projects. I learnt the importance of setting vision, mission and goals, time planning with Gantt charts and pitching our projects so that our audiences will easily understand the message we convey. Many other important areas such as communication and the internet were also discussed. What I liked most was that the workshop was not restricted to classroom activities. We had the chance to visit the Scottish Parliament where we met the minister of Energy, Transport and Climate Change for Scotland. Our Dynamic Earth and the Royal Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh were where we learnt first hand the practical aspects of Climate Change.

Although it was cold in Scotland I felt the warmth of home and friendly smiles met me at every corner. I had the chance interact with Climate Champions from all over the world. I brought home a load of knowledge that I hope to share with the others in Sri Lanka.