00:00Climate change is a massive problem in Bristol and all areas of the United Kingdom, and the
00:07City of Bristol is helping to reach our climate change goal. As part of this, the Department
00:13for Education is now encouraging schools to become greener as part of the goal for reaching
00:18net zero emissions by 2025. The department has said that schools need to have their own
00:25action plans by the end of 2025, giving them 25 years to help reach our sustainability
00:31goal.
00:32What is your opinion on that? Do you think we should kind of be educating our children
00:36in being eco-friendly and recycling and things?
00:39Yeah, I think that's a great opportunity, partly because obviously schools emit carbon
00:44and have a footprint on the environment, so making them cleaner is great, but at the same
00:48time the opportunity to help raise kids with sustainability in mind, both in terms of carbon
00:54emissions but in terms of the climate and nature, and obviously, yeah, putting a little
00:57bit of nature into as many schools as possible helps give kids the best start, better for
01:02them, better for nature, so yes, all round great.
01:05The UK government have called for schools to be a bit more eco-friendly and green, kind
01:09of educating the children in how to be green. What is your opinion on that?
01:13Well, yeah, I mean, we're all in favour of it, aren't we? We're in favour of less pollution
01:17and more recycling, and yeah, obviously, it's a good thing.
01:21Many schools are already doing their part by making sure their pupils receive a robust
01:27climate and nature education. One thing they are doing is a nature park programme led by
01:32the Natural History Museum that has been running for around a year. In that time, children
01:38at more than 4,000 schools, nurseries and colleges across every region of England have
01:44been busy building green walls, digging ponds and growing pollinator-friendly plants.
01:51Secondly, the Department for Education is supporting schools to slash emissions as part
01:57of the Let's Go Zero programme, but what do locals think?
02:04One thing that the UK government has called for is for schools to be more green, kind
02:09of educating children in how to be looking after the environment and things like that.
02:13What is your opinion on that?
02:14I think that's a really good idea. I think teaching kids today about the Norman Conquest
02:18isn't that relevant. I think the world's moved on. So I think you need to teach kids about,
02:24yeah, the environment, the planet. I think you need to teach them how to manage money.
02:28It's a whole different careers landscape out there as well, isn't it? So yeah, I think
02:33there's significant changes that need to be made, definitely.
02:35Do you think as well schools can be greener? Things like having solar panels, because a
02:39lot of schools use a lot of-
02:40Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm amazed they haven't done it already. If you've got schools
02:44that have got rooftops and things like that, absolutely. But where's the money coming from?
02:48Are they going to reap the rewards of the cost of that, or is it going to be sold to
02:53a third party, and then they make all the money out of it? So yeah, it's a multi-layered
02:58thing, isn't it? It's quite complicated.
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