Professor Kate Pahl and Dr Simon Carr

Inspiring young people to value trees, Kate Pahl and Simon Carr.

Video credit: UKRI
On-screen captions and an autogenerated transcript are available on YouTube.

In the run-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), we asked our researchers to tell us about their work and the challenges of tackling climate change.

Professor Kate Pahl is the principal investigator of the Voices of the Future project and, alongside Dr Simon Carr who is the co-investigator for the project. They are aiming to engage young people in recognising, valuing, and promoting treescapes.

The project will evaluate how young people relate to, and engage with, the trees that surround them, especially those children whose voices are rarely heard.

Kate and Simon’s research team will encourage young people to find their sense of ownership and belonging in the treescapes of the future. It will aim to offer children and young people hope and empowerment in envisaging their future relationship with treescapes, and how this contributes to UK and global climate mitigation ambitions.

Kate says:

Our hope for the COP26 meeting is that the delegates will recognise and listen to the voices of young people and to build them into actions that arise from the meeting.

Children and young people of today will be tasked as adults with delivering the ambitions of COP26, and they need to be valued and empowered to become the labour that meets this greatest of challenges.

Last updated: 3 November 2021

This is the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Let us know if you have feedback or would like to help improve our online products and services.