Iranildo de Sousa Ferreira is a 16 year old student who has been working  in the environmental area for several years. He is a student and lives in the city of Ibiapina, Ceará in Brazil. Protecting the environment is his passion. Iranildo is writing for the GLOBAL IDEAS Blog about his experience with climate change and about projects he’s working on.

Part I

I am very concerned about climate change as it has progressed in recent years from mere conjecture to suspicion, and finally to reality – backed by real data. Now we know for sure that around the world, year after year, decade after decade, the world’s temperature is rising.

In 2010 I was selected to be a British Council Climate Champion by the selection process of the Climate Generation Programme in Latin America and the Caribbean. As a Climate Champion, I’m doing several actions in my city, my state and country to increase public awareness about climate change. My aim is to change habits and encourage mitigation and adaptation. I initiated and am involved with the Brazilian Government’s first Young Brazilian delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference where I will exercise the role of president.

To legitimize the performance of my actions and my work as a Climate Champion got great support from the people at the British Council in Brazil, with whom I keep in touch through the Project Manager, Ana Paula Bessa, who accompanies and guides me in the execution of my actions.

When we work on the issue of climate change, we must remember that climate change will affect all living beings on our planet, and so we can minimize the effects, not only by using clean energy technologies but we need something much bigger – we need everyone’s help. We must act now and start from our homes, our schools, our institutions. We will prove that the human beings are not what they say but what they do.

In cooperation with the British Council GLOBAL IDEAS will periodically present you with portraits and updates of the 'International Climate Champions'. The Climate Champion programme recognizes young people from all over the world, who are doing an outstanding job in campaigning and working for the protection of our climate.

Today, please meet Anoka Abeyrathne, a Climate Champion from Sri Lanka:

Anoka has been given the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Youth Award 2010. At the age of 14 she started working on the protection of the wetlands of Sri Lanka to combat Climate Change. Until today Anoka has helped replant more than 12,000 Mangroves in Sri Lanka. She is an activist in the South Asian Youth Climate Action Network. In 2010 she became a British Council International Climate Champion and was the Sri Lankan delegate to the Youth Forum on Climate Finance 2010 in Shanghai.