VISITORS to York city centre are being invited to contribute to a piece of 'public art' highlighting the threat posed by climate change.

Green campaigners have set up an art stall in Parliament Street. It will be there all week, to coincide with the first week of the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow.

Passers-by are being provided with paper and arts materials and being asked to draw or colour their own artworks. At the end of the week, they will be collated into a single public artwork on a large canvas sheet.

York climate campaigner and Green Party member Ginevra House said it was up to people what kind of artwork they wanted to produce.

"It could be an image inspired by some of the extreme climate events, or an expression of hope about the future they’d like to see. It could be an abstract expression of mood, a stick cartoon drawing - anything really," she said.

"Evidence of climate change happening now is all around us. As the news fills with stories of wildfires, floods, hurricanes, snowstorms in Texas and heatwaves in Siberia, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, tempting to just switch off.

"We want to invite members of the public to switch on, and engage with the changes we’re seeing all around us. We just want to get people talking about it."

Those who take part will also be invited to make a 'climate pledge' - a promise to make a small change to their lifestyle.

"There will be no hair shirts," Ginevra said. "It will just be something fun, something that’s going to improve quality of life - maybe something like having a vegetarian meal once a week, a 'veggie Wednesday', for example.

"We just want to encourage people to try something new."

The climate stall will be at the top end of Parliament Street (near St Sampson's Square) from 10am-4pm all week until Friday.

There will also be a 'York youth 4 climate strike' in St Helen's Square from 12-4pm on Friday, and a York March for the Climate on Saturday, leaving from York Minster at 12 noon.