According to Li, the last delegation had only one month to prepare before leaving for Copenhagen.

Lacking experience and preparation, many of the delegates felt lost in meetings replete with climate change terminology.

This year, China's youth delegation has enough time "to do its homework".

"Our mission is to serve as a bridge, channeling more young people to the event by collecting their ideas and questions via the Internet and asking those questions on their behalf in Mexico," Li said.

"We will not just make a presence. We are going to collaborate with youth delegations from all over the world and prove young people can make a difference in UN climate change talks."

Li has long been interested in participating in international activities.

Majoring in international politics at the university, Li has joined many international events and organizations, including AIESEC, the world's largest student-run group that develops leadership capabilities.

At the end of 2008, she noticed the Leadership on the Edge program designed to build participants' leadership skills and environment protection awareness while exploring Antarctica.

Given Li's rich experiences in international activities, she was selected to go by Robert Swan, the initiator of the program and the first person to have visited both the North and South poles.

"Everything on the Antarctic continent was pretty amazing, and amazingly pretty," Li said.

Li remembered Swan telling her how his eyes were once affected and the skin peeled off his face after walking for weeks under the hole in the ozone layer.

But Li said she was very impressed by Swan and his colleagues' effort to build the first education station in Antarctica powered entirely by renewable energy.

"From that, I've come to see that one can make great contributions to the environment through individual effort and one's actions can really inspire, stimulate and uplift others," Li said.

(China Daily November 26, 2010)