Two north Wales teenagers are going head-to-head with politicians when they take part in the Earth Summit in Johannesburg later this month.

Fourteen-year-old Natasha Parry from Flint and Yasmin Tariq, who is 18 and from Conwy, have been selected to represent Wales at the worldwide event.

I had interests in environmental issues so I begged one of my teachers to let me go

Natasha Parry

They will be joined by Rhys Richardson from Cardiff at the summit in South Africa which runs from 26 August to 4 September.

More than 60,000 delegates from 174 nations are expected to debate the growing concern surrounding environmental issues.

The trio were chosen by fellow students and will fly out on Tuesday to participate in the young people's event which runs alongside the adult meeting.

The trip has been organised by the Centre for Alternative Technology at Machynlleth, which ran workshops to determine who would represent Wales.

Yasmin Tariq is worried about transport issues

"I had interests in environmental issues so I begged one of my teachers to let me go," explained Natasha Parry.

"I was doing renewable energy sources and then the group had to vote for two people and we had to talk about what we learnt.

The Flint High School student said she had to prepare a lot of work for her speech.

"We had a massive map stuck up and we talked about where we could put renewable energy sources, what renewable energy sources are, where we could use them best and how everybody else could help in these matters."

Reward youngsters

She said she was overjoyed when she heard she would be visiting the summit: "I went mad, I couldn't believe it and I was in so much shock, I was amazed."

Whilst there, the students have a packed agenda and will meet another delegate from Wales' - First Minister Rhodri Morgan.

He is sponsoring an event aimed at creating a global network of regional governments to promote sustainable development.

Yasmin Tariq hopes to tackle the politician about her favourite topic - transport.

"I'm hoping to come away with some good ideas from other cultures especially surrounding transport," she said.

The teenager wants to encourage delegates to introduce a green card which would reward youngsters for walking instead of using cars.

Johannesbug will host the Earth Summit

"We found out some facts about younger children becoming fatter and unhealthy.

"A lot of people are too scared to walk now and parents take them in the car."

Natasha added: "While we're there we're going to pick up on new things to do around Wales to help the environment.

"We'll be attending the youth summit, and we'll be visiting Lesotho for a recycling project."

They will also visit pupils at a South African primary school and the Nelson Mandela Museum.

"If we can speak to little children there, we can take their ideas and bring them back home with us," said Yasmin.

"I'm really looking forward to hearing other people and what they've got to say from different cultures."