A teenage poet fought off competition from around the world to win an inaugural award.

Serena Cooke, 16, from Cheam High School, performed her poem Green Tears at an award ceremony in east London on Monday night.

Winners of the first Switch green poetry competition were presented by Lord de Mauley, resource management minister at the department for the environment, food and rural affairs (Defra).

The environmental award was launched earlier this year by Cape Farewell to inspire young people to explore climate change issues through poetry.

Entrants came from around the globe, including New York and Bangkok. Miss Cooke was joined by three other winners from Bangkok, London and Lincoln.

Judge Karen McCarthy Woolf said: "These young poets have achieved that elusive equilibrium with work that combines talent, technique and integrity to bring a fresh perspective to this pressing issue."

Miss Cooke, said: "From my part, winning this challenge was doubly fantastic because I love writing poetry and I really care about the environment I live in.

"I'm passionate about reducing my carbon footprint and recycling wherever I can. Every little bit helps."

That poem in full:

Green Tears

The winds whisper words of warning for the World

The Father Tree looks up to the eye of the hurricane

Circling above him Like vultures Or mankind

Wires Now climb the thick trunk Transmitting profit and expenditure statistics to the Queen Ant

Metallic impulses spit in the spiralling wires

Strangling him as they climb Ever higher

Ever tighter

Fingers of bone and marrow clamped around his oesophagus

Starving

Please take the weight off me

Hear the spitter patter supper Of whispers flying around your head

Clouds of doubt

The vines of society fingering the air as they make their descent

To the rich wealth of the soil and beyond

Scratch and tear and itch and bite At the working ants, laughing Laughing at your naivety

I belong here

Twigs break Branches snap Trunks fall Laughter evaporates

I am the forest

And I cry