The new Climate Ambassador Programme of An Taisce’s Environmental Education Unit was launched on Monday, September 18.  This exciting new programme focuses on identifying individuals in schools, campuses and the wider community who will work as ambassadors for climate change.

The programme is open to everyone and its organisers hope to have people from all walks of life taking part to make a positive change in their communities. The Climate Ambassador Programme is important because it aims to increase awareness of the causes of climate change and what people can do to address the problem. Following training, Ambassadors will be invited to undertake actions to make their school, campus or community more resilient to climate change.

Through community engagement the new Ambassadors will play their part in building sustainable Irish communities ready to meet the challenges of a changing climate. The new programme is one of four initiatives being funded by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment in partnership with An Taisce’s Green Schools National Climate Action and Awareness Programme, with climate change teacher training; a Climate Action Week and a schools Climate Expo also taking place in 2017 and 2018.

Commenting on the launch of the new programme, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten, T.D., said:

“There is no doubt that climate change is the single biggest challenge facing us all and An Taisce’s Climate Ambassador programme will play a significant part in how we as a country try to deal with climate change. Ireland is vulnerable to the effects of climate change and the impacts are serious: more storms, rising sea levels and changing weather. Everyone is welcome to apply to be an Ambassador and I encourage as many as possible to get involved. I hope to have children, parents and grandparents involved in the programme. We aim to have a number of climate Ambassadors working right across Ireland. A key goal for the Ambassadors is to increase awareness of the causes and outcomes of climate change. They will also undertake a number of actions to make their school, campus or community more resilient to climate change by improving their local environment.”

Everyone is welcome to apply to be an Ambassador. To find out more about the programme, how to apply and what actions you can take, please visit: www.climateambassador.ie.

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