To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in what ways his Department publicised World Environment Day on 5 June. (141051)

I opened the £18 million River Quaggy Flood Alleviation scheme in Lewisham, London, with the chairman of the Environment Agency Sir John Harman. I asked people to mark World Environment Agency Day by identifying the one change they can make in their everyday lives to protect the environment and fight climate change. I also urged people to go to the Environment Agency’s Mend the World online survey, which was the core component of the Environment Agency's campaign this year for WED. This has been asking people for the number one action they can do to tackle climate change, the one extra action they could take and what was stopping them from doing so.

I also announced that the Government are to hold a second competition for youth Climate Change Champions to communicate climate change across the country. The nine inaugural champions, aged between 10 and 18, have been active in speaking out about climate change. Their efforts have reached an estimated 18 per cent. of the adult population and have engaged a large number of young people in the debate about what needs to be done. The competition will kick off in the summer, and nine new champions will be appointed in the autumn.

DEFRA also released a new booklet, “Climate Change: Your Guide to Inspiring Action” to help organisations communicate the ways in which people can make changes in their lives to help fight climate change. The first guide has been downloaded 40,000 times and 6,000 hard copies have been distributed. It is available on

www.climatechallenge.gov.uk

I also highlighted a number of other initiatives that took place on WED, which have received DEFRA funding through the Climate Challenge Fund scheme. These included the launch of the Royal Society of Arts/Tesco Carbonator—an online CO₂ calculator aimed at children aged 7-14 to raise awareness of climate change and the Royal Geographical Society’s new website for 11 to 18-year-olds linking climate change to the geography curriculum. The fund provides financial support for communications projects seeking to achieve positive changes in public attitudes about climate change. The 83 projects cover a wide range of communications initiatives and media and are supported by £8.5 million of funding.