Category: Blog

Climate change is often presented to young people as a distant, global problem. Our campaign Green Minds, Greener Tomorrow started from the opposite direction: from the everyday habits, local environmental issues and future careers of school students in Lucknow.

A classroom on the roadside

On 3 May 2025, IPRS set up an awareness camp on the roadside opposite a local school in Lucknow, timed to coincide with school dispersal. Working independently of the school administration let our volunteers meet students in a neutral, friendly setting. Posters, banners, pamphlets and an open information booth drew students in voluntarily.

What students learned

In ten-minute small-group sessions, volunteers covered the basics of climate change, local environmental issues, carbon footprints and the role young people can play. A guidance corner introduced career paths in environmental science and policy, and where to study them.

From awareness to action

More than 200 students signed a Green Pledge to reduce plastic use, save electricity and water, and join local green drives, and we distributed 300 bilingual pamphlets. Several students asked how they could start similar activities in their own neighbourhoods — the best sign that grassroots efforts like this are worth repeating.

Read the full story, see the activities and download the project report on the campaign page. If you would like to help bring the campaign to more students, join us as a volunteer.

Public policy shapes almost every part of daily life — the schools our children attend, the courts we turn to for justice, the air we breathe and the services we rely on. Yet many policy decisions are still made with too little evidence, too little time for deliberation and too few of the affected people in the room.

Why evidence matters

Evidence does not make decisions on its own; people do. But good evidence narrows disagreement about the facts, so that debate can focus on values and trade-offs. It shows what has worked elsewhere, what has failed and why. And it helps those who govern explain their choices to the public they serve.

Why dialogue matters

Research that stays in a report changes very little. Policy improves when researchers, officials, practitioners and citizens test ideas against one another’s experience. That is why IPRS pairs every research effort with conversation — at roundtables, seminars, our annual conference and in the communities our work concerns.

What we will publish here

Insights is where IPRS members, researchers and invited contributors will share commentaries on new laws and judgments, summaries of our briefs and reports, notes from our events and reflections from our programmes. Our aim is simple: clear writing, careful reasoning and a respect for the reader’s time.

If you would like to contribute an article, write to us at iprs.global@gmail.com with a short outline.