China Youth, Climate Action
Empowering children to learn, take action, and inspire the world on climate change
- 中文
- English
UNICEF, National Center for Climate Change Strategy (NCSC) and Chinese Meteorological Society have launched a new initiative, China Youth, Climate Action, to engage school children in taking actions towards tackling climate change. The campaign, which has been run from July to the end of November, is being organized through schools across China.
Children and climate change
Climate change is a child rights crisis. Children make up half of the world’s population, but are least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and other practices harming our environment. Virtually every child on the planet is already affected by climate change. Natural disasters, environmental degradation, and biodiversity loss can devastate agriculture, cutting children off from nutritious food and safe water. They can lead to dangerous environments and disease outbreaks, and destroy the safe shelter, quality health care and education systems children need to survive and thrive.
In China, children are severely affected by droughts, floods and typhoons – all of which are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change. China is now the largest global emitter of greenhouse gasses, although it is also leading the world in renewable energy. To tackle this issue, it is important to involve the young generation in finding solutions to climate change, to listen to their voices and to enable them to contribute their ideas, skills and experiences to make their communities more livable in a changing world.
About the campaign
The "Climate Youth, Climate Action" campaign aims to inform Chinese children about climate change, encourage their involvement in climate actions, and highlight their ideas for addressing climate change to the world through the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP-29) in Azerbaijan in November 2024.
From September, students from primary and secondary schools aged 9 to 19 will be chosen based on the creativity, innovation and feasibility of their ideas and projects to tackle climate change. They will then share their knowledge and provide practical solutions to their peers and other climate action networks. They will create essays, draw artwork , and innovative action plans to improve the environment in their schools and local communities.
Students’ most innovative ideas will be selected by a committee of climate change experts and presented to youth networks and world leaders at the UN COP-29 conference in November. This event will provide a valuable opportunity for learning and exchanging ideas to promote the best climate action practices, as seen from the perspective of children and youth from China and around the world. Mentorship and seed funding will be sought to turn the children’s ideas into real-world projects that can be scaled up.
How to get involved
Students or parents:
If you or your child are interested, start by telling your teacher that you would like to get involved in the ‘China Youth, Climate Action’ campaign. You can then work with your school to develop a speech, essay, artwork or innovation idea, and submit this by 15 September 2024. There is guidance for your school below.
Schools:
For schools, please contact the Chinese Meteorological Society for further details on how to take part in the ‘China Youth, Climate Action’ campaign, including how to develop and submit innovation ideas. You can also find their official guidelines below:
You can also follow UNICEF on Weibo and WeChat to inform yourself about climate actions and find out how to improve your community.
