STUDENTS at an independent school outside Oswestry have been putting their own views on how to avert a climate crisis ahead of the United Nations Annual Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.

As world leaders prepare to gather in Glasgow, students from years Nine to 13 at Moreton Hall, in Weston Rhyn, played their part in tackling a global priority, climate change, the greatest risk facing both theirs and future generations.

The school's own COP26 Climate Change conference started with a presentation from Old Moretonian Flavia Paterson, who worked as a political lobbyist for the Woodland Trust SSE and spent three years as director of communications covering Scotland in the Government.

Flavia was joined by Smart Energy expert Rupert Pigot and together they set the COP26 agenda for pupil delegates and issued the challenge to the younger generation to take the lead in saving the planet.

A spokesman said: "Taking up Flavia’s challenge, each year group focused on a specific issue on the table at the Glasgow conference.

"Following the UN model, they divided into member countries including the UK, USA, Brazil, Russia, Bangladesh and China to consider their issue from the perspective of that country.

"Renewable energy, deforestation, sustainable transport and waste reduction were all researched and discussed as the student delegates developed their understanding from the perspective of their country.

"In the lively debates which followed, the vested interests of their country were paramount in trying to find a compromise on the resolutions on the table: input from representatives lobbying from business and NGOs added fuel to the discussions.

"Moreton’s COP 26 live blog created by the student press team who ensured the wider school community was kept up to date with developments, with their live feed shared on social media outlets; twitter and facebook, using the written word, video and audio."

Hannah Peel, head of the school’s Eco Team and one of the staff behind the day, added: “This was a great day.

"I was with year 10 who were debating commitments to increase renewables and reduce fossil fuels.

"We had some strong debates from China and Kenya, with excellent contributions from India, Brazil and Bangladesh in particular.

"We all hope that the real COP26 is pursued with the same enthusiasm and commitment to global change."