An Angus schoolboy has put Boris Johnson on the spot about climate change and the COP26 summit.
Lucas Hutton, 10, was among just a handful of youngsters selected to take part in a children’s climate press conference with the Prime Minister and WWF chief executive Tanya Steele.
The Tealing Primary School P7 pupil quizzed the PM on whether he thought world leaders were listening to children and asked: “Do you think COP26 will make a difference?”
Mr Johnson told him he thought leaders were starting to see the urgency of the situation.
Watch: Lucas at children’s climate press conference
And he said: “I have talked to a lot of them in the last few weeks and they are making some… some good commitments.”
He also said that the summit created “peer pressure”, stating: “I think that people feel that they want to follow the example of their friends and their neighbours and that will have a good effect on the outcome… I hope, but it’s very, very far from clear that we’ll get the progress we need.”
Ms Steele told Lucas that COP26 was the “most important summit in a generation”.
Afterwards, Lucas told us: “I felt pretty excited when we were allowed to go into Downing Street and I was proud to represent my school.”
I am quite concerned about [climate change] because it’s our world and it’s us that will have to deal with it.”
Lucas Hutton, 10
Mr Johnson’s reply to his question was “reasonable”, he said, “because the government can’t control all of the world”.
Lucas said he learns about climate change in school and said: “I am quite concerned about it because it’s our world and it’s us that will have to deal with it.”
His mum proud Christina, who travelled to London with him and class teacher Lesley Mappin, said: “It was an amazing opportunity not only for him but for the whole school he was representing.”
Fellow pupils at Tealing Primary School watched from their classrooms as Lucas’ exchange with the PM was streamed live from Downing Street on Monday morning.
Head teacher Michael Smith said Lucas “held himself with great composure and spoke very articulately”.
He said: “We all watched it here and the whole school was very excited for him.
“Lucas will be back in school tomorrow and we are very keen to hear how he got on.”
Tealing Primary School was invited last week to send a pupil to the children’s climate press conference which was hosted by First News and JPI Media ahead of next week’s United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow.
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