"Clock is ticking": Wales football stars back youth climate message
The Urdd's 100th annual peace and goodwill message is being presented to the Nobel Peace Centre
Welsh football stars are among the names backing a climate change message from the largest youth organisation in Wales.
Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey are among the players to support the Urdd Gobaith Cymru's annual peace and goodwill message.
This year is the hundredth year of the message, and focuses on the environment, urging leaders around the world to "wake up."
Wales is the only country in the world to produce such a message, and it has previously been supported by US politician Hillary Clinton.
This year, it is available in a hundred languages for the first time, including British Sign Language,
It is being delivered to the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo by First Minister Mark Drakeford, alongside the Aberystwyth students who wrote it.
Mr Drakeford said: "The Nobel Peace Centre is the ideal location for the Urdd to share the centenary peace message with the world.
"At a time when the peace of the world is in such peril, the message and work of the Urdd in welcoming refugees to Wales have never been more significant.
"The theme of the climate emergency, too, will resonate with young people from around the globe as we work together to protect the fragile planet which we inhabit together."
Sian Lewis, the Urdd's chief executive, said: "As an organisation, we have a duty to the next generation to use this platform to amplify their voices, because giving a voice to the young people of Wales is at the core of everything the Urdd does."
Alongside the message, the Urdd has committed to reducing its carbon footprint and has created a net zero plan with a target of achieving net zero by 2050.
It has also opened its first environmental residential centre for young people in north Pembrokeshire.
To offset the footprint created by the students travelling to Norway, the Urdd and Aberystwyth University have donated to its carbon capturing and storing woodland protection plan.
"Wake up": This year's message in full
The clock is ticking
And our world is on fire.
It's time to wake up.
Floods, fires, starvation, and poverty,
this is our reality.
Migration, conflict, displacement,
is this what our future holds?
Why are we still listening
to the blah, blah, blah of those in power?
Why do we still believe
that we can buy our way out?
It's time to wake up.
It's time to make a change.
We can't carry on like this.
We have the privilege of choice,
to slow down, to lessen our use,
to think.
To stop overconsumption.
Because we won't be the first to suffer.
And so here's our promise
to change the way we live
and to call for a systemic change
for the sake of those in the Global South.
For the sake of a future.
We'll begin with ourselves
by making small changes
And putting pressure on corporations and politicians
to make the big changes.
This is our promise.
What's yours?
It's time to wake up.