So, I have some exciting news..

I'M GOING TO POLAND!

But, not for a holiday, oh no. I'm going to represent Scotland as a YRE (Young Reporter for the Environment) at COP24 in Katowice from the 2nd till the 7th December, 2018. Alongside me are two international YREs - Kristin from Canada and Maria from Portugal - and for the second week, there will be Lovely from Canada, Martina from Malta and Wesley from Singapore.

What is COP24?

COP (Conference of the Parties) involve global conferences, whereby the important and potential change regarding climate policy is discussed. Poland has held them twice before, in Poznan in 2008 and then in Warsaw in 2013.

There will be around 20,000 people from 190 international countries who are participating in the event, ranging from politicians to non-governmental organisations, scientific community and business sector.

So, what exactly is my role?

Well, the clue is in my title. I'll be acting as a young reporter. Every day, I'll be actively engaging in the summit, using my investigative journalistic skills to gather information and evidence to use towards my final, written article on climate change.

Before the conference, I've been asked to research further into my two chosen topics, of which I went for climate change and biodiversity, and food security. These are topics which both I feel strongly about (read more here), and I studied throughout Higher Biology at school.

Climate change is something which I have a strong passion for because I know of it's major threat it holds over the world. We must act, and fast. I really hope that COP24 enables me to raise my voice, educate my fellow peers and citizens, and seek change.