Nurul arriving in Brussels for EU Green Week

3 July 2009: Plan Indonesia’s young climate change ambassador Nurul was given centre stage alongside leading European Union figures and global warming experts at a conference during EU Green Week.

As part of 2009 EU Green Week, 17-year-old Nurul travelled from Jakarta to Brussels to speak at the biggest annual conference on European environment policy.

The conference was attended by over 3,500 participants from EU institutions, business and industry, non-governmental organisations, public authorities, scientists and academics.

Changing attitudes

Nurul, who recently won a Plan Indonesia video documentary competition about children and climate change, took part in the session ‘Can the media and society change climate attitudes?’. Other keynote speakers included  Fanny Armstrong, who directed climate change film ‘The Age of Stupid’ and Clause Sorensen, Director of General Communication at the European Commission.

Nurul shared her ideas and perspectives on climate change and how children are able to take an active role in its adaptation and mitigation with their creativeness.

Education key

After the conference, she said: “It’s been a great learning experience for me so far, even though I haven’t yet engaged with economics and politics I now understand how complex climate change really is and how it can affect a lot of aspects.

“I want to remind you to continue to educate my generation about this issue properly because in the near future we will be the leading generation and we want to continue doing the work that you have done to make this world a better place.”

A day after, Plan organised the Youth Juice Bicycle and Plan Youth Café at the conference where youngsters interviewed several policy makers from the EU commission as well as Fanny Armstrong.

Read Nurul’s blogs on the conference.

Learn more about Plan’s work on child and youth participation.