The Youth Science Conference, “Call for Action” took place in Smolenice between June 29 and July 2. It was organised by the Slovak Association of Young Scientists and the British Council, which had been invited to become a partner because of our involvement in Challenge Europe. The aim of this International Conference was to encourage young people to involve themselves in a worldwide community of scientists, politicians, technicians, technologists and other specialists to help reduce the impact of climate change.

The participants and all invited guests including HE Michael Roberts, the UK´s Ambassador to Slovakia, met at Congress Centre of the Slovak Academy of Sciences at the Smolenice Castle.

The Conference was attended by 24 Climate Advocates of the Challenge Europe project from the Czech Republic, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland and Slovakia and by the same number of young scientists - winners of various science contests in China, Denmark, Mexico and Slovakia.

The programme included an opportunity to debate the issues with key speakers from Slovakia and the UK - David Viner (the British Council’s Programme Leader for Climate Change), Slovak climatologist Milan Lapin (patron of Challenge Europe in Slovakia) and Adam Bumpus (recently completing his Doctoral work at the University of Oxford).

Part of the programme was a visit to nearby companies Chemolak Smolenice and car factory Peugeot Citroen to see how green policies are applied in some plants in Slovakia. Each day, lively discussions that went on until the early hours were also inspired by watching films such as Recipes for Disaster made by Finnish Climate Advocate John Webster.

Throughout the conference a group of volunteers worked on a Resolution for the December UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen which was discussed and completed in the final plenary session. The Resolution demonstrates that young people do care about the environment and the future of our planet and expect action from decision makers, hence the title of the conference “Call for Action”.The conference was a truly successful networking experience and many contacts will survive far beyond this event.