World leaders will soon meet in Paris to come to a universal agreement on climate, but the debate about our planet's future is also happening at home – and it involves the territory's youth.
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Six ACT student cabinet ministers will take their proposals for protecting the environment to the standing committee on planning, environment, territory and municipal services on Wednesday.
The youngest of the forward-thinking bunch is year 2 student Bethan Pitt from Red Hill Primary School, who suggests "on the 1st of October, everybody (if they want to) can plant a tree".
Farrer Primary school students from years 4 to 6 will advise introducing a government-funded campaign encouraging people to buy local produce, while students in years 7 to 9 from Daramalan College want more comprehensive education on the effects of carbon footprints on the curriculum.
But according to the older debaters, education is only one of many measures needed to save tomorrow's generation from rising carbon emissions.
Canberra Grammar School's college students will discuss the feasibility of constructing all ACT buildings with solar panels, basing government subsidy on the net worth of the company constructing the building.
Radford College representatives propose a more significant investment in renewable energy both locally and nationally, and Canberra College students call for changes to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
They want to augment the covenant "with a binding protocol on international water rights that makes explicit reference to human rights and establish an Australian statutory authority to make sure Australia is keeping with its international treaty obligations".
SEE-Change project leader Bob Douglas said these six proposals were the most outstanding of the 46 that were presented in the assembly by children as young as seven.
"We had about 25 schools involved and each submitted a paper around a proposal, which was debated in parliament by the teams."
The final six schools will now take their creative solutions to MLAs Shane Rattenbury, Simon Corbell and Nicole Lawder, who Mr Douglas says should take them very seriously.
"The schools need to know that they've been listened to … It's our generation that has mucked it up and this is their future they are debating. We should be listening hard."
The college students undoubtedly agree, as their white paper concludes: "Let our generation be remembered not as the one who allowed fear and greed to hinder them from saving the world but as one who took action to stop climate change."
