Do young people feel they are listened to by politicians? Can politicians ever work together for long enough to enact real environmental change? In short, will politics fix the planet?

To coincide with COP 28, De Montfort University invited around 50 young people - who will become first-time voters in the next general election - from schools and colleges in Leicestershire, to put their questions to a panel of politicians and climate activists.

They took part in a workshop, thinking what questions they wanted answered and then, after a break, they had the opportunity to put those points to the panel, which consisted of:

Chay Harwood: young climate activist (Extinction Rebellion)
Emma de Saram: young climate activist (SOS UK – Students organising for Sustainability)
Paul Hartshorn: Lib Dem PPC (Leicestershire South)
Rajesh Agrawal: Labour PPC (Leicester East)
Coun Liz Sahu: Green Party (Leicester City Council)
Coun Deepak Bajaj: Leader of Leicester Conservatives

There was also a live link to COP28 in Dubai, where DMU was one of the only universities to have access to the site's Blue Zone, where historic climate negotiations took place. From COP 28, the audience heard from Professor Katie Normington, Vice-Chancellor of DMU, and Martina Donlan, Head of Climate at the UN.


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