A FORMER Tavistock College student last weekend turned the spotlight on climate change in Oxford, at a forum attended by some 400 delegates.

Zoe Conn, director of the Oxford Climate Forum, is a student at St Hilda's College. Speakers at the forum included climate expert Mark Lynas, an adviser on climate change to the Maldives, Foreign Office envoy John Ashton, The Guardian's environment editor John Vidal and a host of other experts.

Zoe, aged 21, said: 'The original forum was set up to mobilise the student body towards the generation of a kind of climate hub among Oxford students, but since then it has become more broad.

'Now it's about creating a proper platform in which students and academics can exchange ideas and hopefully make some kind of change.'

The forum debates included how to find equity on a crowded planet, how the developing world can take the lead, green government, technology and climate change and whether global consensus is a realistic goal.

Zoe said: 'When I started as director I was an English student, so I wasn't really engaged with the climate science. If you're coming in at my level, you can start to make a difference straight away.'

Recent figures released by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit have been interpreted by some scientists in a way that suggests rather than the earth's temperature warming, we could be heading for another ice age.

Zoe said: 'If we have global warming or are coming to an ice age, it's going to affect everyone. Being covered in ice is no better than living in a tropical jungle.'