PUPILS from a York secondary school are planning their own mini Earth Summit to coincide with the Rio +20 event in Brazil.

Youngsters from Joseph Rowntree School will take part in the Jo Rio Earth Summit, part of the Good Life Initiative on which the school has worked with researchers from the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York. City of York Council leader James Alexander joined the 12- and 13-year-old pupils as they constructed an eco-house and built a bicycle out of recycled bike parts, as well as auditing the biodiversity of the school grounds and writing their own eco-musical.

The activities are part of the preparations to showcase the work that has been done for the event, on June 21.

The young people have already contributed to a film entitled Voices Of The Future, to be shown to a gathering of Nobel Laureates, policy-makers and ministers.