Search

26 Mar 2026

Louth students compete in semi-finals of Young Environmentalist Awards

The semi-finals of the ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards took place on Thursday

Louth students compete in semi-finals of Young Environmentalist Awards

Pictured at the ECO-UNESCO Ulster ECO-Den at the Lough Neagh Discovery Centre, Craigavon, were students from Dundalk Grammar School

The semi-finals of the ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards (YEA) took place on Thursday, with young people from Louth taking part in the event at the Lough Neagh Discovery Centre, Craigavon.

ECO-UNESCO’s Young Environmentalist Awards is an all-island programme that recognises the work of young people, who have taken environmental action in their school or community and come up with creative solutions to solve environmental issues.

Forty-three teams from across Ulster and Leinster, competed in the ‘ECO-Dens’, as the semi-finals are known, to win a place in the final of the Young Environmentalist Awards in Dublin in May. Young environmental activists travelled from schools across Ulster and Leinster, including Dundalk Grammar School, with their projects focusing on climate change and eco-health and wellbeing.

Yesterday’s regional ECO-Den is one of four provincial semi-finals being held across the island of Ireland in March, with the winners of each advancing to the final. Speaking from the yesterday’s semi-finals, Elaine Nevin, national director of ECO-UNESCO, said:

“The ECO-Dens and Young Environmentalist Awards are some of the most exciting events in the ECO-UNESCO calendar. It is great to continue this year’s provincial semi-finals at Lough Neagh Discovery Centre again. The passion and problem-solving initiative of these young people’s projects, including those from Louth, offers great hope for the fight against climate change and reminds us that we can all play our part, from a community to a national level.”

Ms Nevin continued: “This year, we have over 500 young people representing 78 groups across 26 counties, including Louth, with projects addressing key problems like climate change, biodiversity, and waste. With such a high standard of entries, it certainly won’t be an easy decision for our judges.

Read next: Louth students take part in Physics Experience in Trinity College

"We are excited to see who makes the final and look forward to crowning winners across 30 junior and senior level categories in May. Regardless, the real winner is the future of climate activism, in the safe hands of these incredibly bright young people.”

For more information, see www.ecounesco.ie.

To continue reading this article,
please subscribe and support local journalism!


Subscribing will allow you access to all of our premium content and archived articles.

Subscribe

To continue reading this article for FREE,
please kindly register and/or log in.


Registration is absolutely 100% FREE and will help us personalise your experience on our sites. You can also sign up to our carefully curated newsletter(s) to keep up to date with your latest local news!

Register / Login

Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.

Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.