King’s College School in Wimbledon is one of the first schools in the country to sign up to the groundbreaking environmental campaign - “10:10”.

Fewer than a dozen UK schools have committed to a 10 per cent reduction in carbon emission by 2010 as part of the movement being embraced by hospitals, local authorities, companies and even individual celebrities across the UK.

According to Andrew Halls, headmaster of King’s College, it is vital the school sets a positive environmental example to future generations.

He said: “We are delighted to be one of the first schools to sign up to 10:10.

“We believe that it is our duty as a school to educate our pupils about the dangers of climate change.

"Our new science building has a wind turbine on the roof and we are looking to make greater use of renewable energy, as well as making our existing buildings more energy efficient.”

Mr Halls joined pupils at the Tate Modern for the launch of the 10:10 campaign earlier this month.

ActionAid, one of the UK’s largest international development agencies, is leading the schools’ arm of 10:10.

On top of helping reduce carbon emissions, students at the Wimbledon school will create ‘sand and dust’ messages - representing land turning into dust in East Africa - that will be sent to Ed Milliband, Britain’s energy and climate change minister.

ActionAid hopes these messages will help reinforce understanding of the devastating effects caused by climate change in some of world’s poorest regions.

Janet Convery, head of schools and youth at ActionAid, said: “We are very inspired to see how school children really do care, not only about their environment but also how climate change is already having such devastating effects on the lives of their peers in the developing world.”

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