Prestatyn Pupil’s inspiring roadmap to carbon neutral future

Becoming carbon neutral is not impossible says a winning Prestatyn pupil.

Prestatyn High School James Cumberlidge is the winner of the KS5 category for Denbighshire County Council’s Postcards from the Future competition.

Pupils were asked to deliver a message back through time to help us understand how to create a better future for ourselves in the county and across the world.

They were asked to imagine we had moved to 2050 and send a postcard back to their younger selves to explain how climate change is potentially impacting on their lives.

The Council received a total of 350 entries for the competition and the winning entries were chosen by Zero Carbon Britain at The Centre for Alternative Technology from a competition designed to tackle climate change back from the future.

James who is passionate about Geography, caught the judge’s eye with his impressive use of detail in his entry to create a strong roadmap for his 13-year-old self to follow into the future to tackle climate change.

In his entry he says: “ I am writing to you from the year 2050 to explain how as a planet we got to be carbon neutral (net-zero). It may sound impossible to a 13-year-old living in a world of such disaster, but it really has worked, and the outcome is marvellous. I will now tell you how we did it.”

James looks at tackling climate change by including elements such as the banning of all single use plastic, replacing all gas boilers with heat pumps, worldwide use of renewable energy, stopping over fishing, electrification of all transport, farming becoming sustainable run family businesses, carbon neutral buildings and the creation of an environmental committee.

Cllr Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “We were so taken with the level of detail James put in his entry and explanation of a fantastic roadmap for tackling climate change from now into the future.

“What struck me more is how passionate and knowledgeable he is about climate change and that encourages us to go that extra level as a Council to tackle climate change to support the next generation.

Councillor Arwel Roberts, Chairman of Denbighshire County Council said: “I want to say well done to such an inspiring young man, his words do echo that we can tackle climate change…changes can be made if we carry on the work we are doing.

All winners will receive a selection of environmental books for the school, a talk from the County Council’s Biodiversity Team and a collection of plug plants to help create or improve a wildflower area. Their winning postcards will also be read out at a future Full Council meeting

The competition was also supported by the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) zero carbon Britain. CAT is an educational charity dedicated to researching and communicating positive solutions for environmental change.