HEATED negotiations about the future of the environment were exchanged by forward-thinking pupils during a climate change.

Young people from across Reading gathered in the council chamber to take part in a mock UN conference on December 5.

Professor Paul Williams from University of Reading addressed the children, emphasising the realities of global warming and human interference.

Councillor Tony Page, lead member for Strategic Environment, said: “Climate change is a subject which young people rightly feel passionate about.

"It was good to see so many young people debating in the council chamber and leading by example in becoming the generation that will deliver a world powered by clean energy and averting runaway climate change.

“The council has made big strides in the last few years in reducing its own carbon footprint, but as we have said many times tackling climate change is everybody’s business."

The mock conference was opened by the Mayor of Reading, councillor Debs Edwards and secondary school pupils were being asked to exchange ideas to tackle the global problem.

Following their debate, the children joined in with workshops, which focussed on a broad range of issues, including biodiversity, food choices and water savings.

Professor Williams added: “Temperature anomalies are now well outside the range of natural climate variability and are explainable only by humankind’s CO2 emissions.

“The latest special report to the UN, which brought together findings of hundreds of trusted scientists across the world, shows we are already seeing the consequences of 1°C of global warming, from the powerful effects of more frequent extreme weather to massive reduction in Arctic sea ice.”