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GPY&R Sydney climate change campaign reaches climax at UN summit

Political, business and religious leaders have been told by the world’s young to stop dithering and take immediate action on climate change as a campaign orchestrated by GPY&R Sydney climaxed at the UN Climate Change Summit.

A video was played at the opening ceremony of the summit in which eight youngsters from across the globe posed questions for world leaders and urged them to take action. They were chosen from 2,500 people aged 13 to 21 who submitted videos for the Why? Why Not campaign.

It was the culmination of a crusade stitched together for Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project by eight WPP agencies and affiliates who were appointed to create a campaign earlier this year.

GPY&R Sydney managing director Andrew Dowling said: “It is clear that the generation most affected by climate change is the one that currently can’t vote for the leaders who typically attend these summits. Our campaign provided the opportunity, and the world’s youth seized it to make its voice heard at the Summit.”

Although the creative originally focused on eight countries – Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Philippines, South Africa, and the USA – it attracted video submissions from 87 countries.

WPP group planning director Jon Steel: “It’s a real privilege to be able to apply our communications skills to solving a problem of such magnitude, and to do in partnership with people like Al Gore and Ban Ki-moon. I always relish the intellectual challenge of creating a campaign, but this time it’s very personal. Climate Change will affect all of us, if it’s not doing so already.”

The campaign will continue to build momentum leading up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s 21st Conference of the Parties in Paris in December 2015.

The agencies involved in the campaign were GPY&R Sydney; JWT, Maxus, The Futures Company, PPR, The Glover Park Group. Blue State Digital and affiliate company VICE.

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