United Nations Joint Framework Initiative on Children, Youth and Climate Change
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Since September 2008, the UNFCCC secretariat has been working together with United Nations agencies and youth non-governmental organizations to empower children and young people to take action on climate change through the United Nations Joint Framework Initiative on Children, Youth and Climate Change.
The work of the Initiative is closely linked to the implementation of Article 6 of the UNFCCC
and in particular the implementation of the
Its main areas of work are:
For more information please e-mail us at youth (at) unfccc.int |
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Recent and upcoming activities by members of the UN Joint Framework Initiative on Children, Youth and Climate Change
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
1. Climate Change guide for youth
This publication contains over 20 chapters covering various aspects of climate change from causes to action on the
ground.
2. Climate change and food security mini projects
In collaboration with WAGGGS, FAO is supporting climate change and food security mini projects where young people
learn about the topics and then develop projects in their local communities from school gardens, tree planting to
community energy efficiency initiatives.
3. Manuals on climate smart agriculture for junior farmer field schools
FAO with a number of partners is developing a series of manuals on climate smart agriculture and community seed
banks for junior farmer field schools and other relevant institutions. And is supporting projects related to youth
and climate change in countries such as Mexico, Cambodia as well as in the pacific region.
4. Youth portal
FAO is developing a youth portal with information for youth on e.g. agriculture, biodiversity, climate change,
forestry, fisheries, food and nutrition, and a special kids corner that will also include quizzes, videos and games
on these topics.
5. Challenge badges
FAO is developing with partners several challenge badges that focus on e.g. oceans, forestry, energy, agriculture,
nutrition (include a section on sustainable diets). These badges complement the 
biodiversity, food security and climate change and
water challenge badge, which FAO published
earlier.
For more information please refer to the FAO web page on Climate Change Children and Youth or contact Mr. Reuben Sessa at Reuben.Sessa@fao.org
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
1. Tunza International Children & Youth Conferences
UNEP recognizes the impact of Climate Change on young people and places a great importance on the role young people
can play on the issue of climate change. In an effort to raise awareness, UNEP in collaboration with the UNEP
National Committee Korea organized the 2009 Tunza International Children and Youth Conference. The daily themes
included: Climate change and its effect on bio-diversity, Climate Change and young people, Water and Sustainable
lifestyle. The conference provided a unique opportunity for over 800 children and youth to share their views and
concerns on climate change and resulted in a youth statement which was presented at the December 2009 climate
change meeting in Copenhagen.
In 2010, UNEP in cooperation with the Aichi Prefectural Government and the City of Nagoya, hosted a Children’s Conference on the on Biodiversity to engage children around the world on biodiversity issues. The Conference resulted in a children’s declaration on biodiversity, presented at COP10 in Nagoya in October.
This year, UNEP in collaboration with the Indonesia Government organized another Tunza International Children and Youth Conference which was held in Bandung Indonesia from 27 September to 1 October 2011 . The Conference brought together 1,400 children and youth, to discuss their role and inputs to the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development " Rio+20". Under the slogan ' Reshaping Our future through A Green Economy and Sustainable Lifestyles'. The conference reviewed the contribution of children and youth to the International Year of Forests and how they can adopt more environment-friendly lifestyles. The conference themes were Rio + 20 (Green Economy) / Green Lifestyles, Forests, Sustainable Consumption and State of the Global Environment from the youth perspective. The Conference resulted in a declaration which contains an action plan on what the children will do to lobby this document and their cause.
2. 2011 Global Youth Gathering
UNEP Tunza Youth Advisory Council met in Nairobi , during UNEP’s Biennial Governing Council Session which was
held in February 2011 to discuss youths perspective on Green Economy and road map to Rio + 20. The meeting
culminated in a Youth statement which was presented to the UNEP Governing Council.
3. International Children’s Painting Competition on the Environment
The International Children’s Painting Competition has been held since 1991 and has attracted over 3 million
paintings from over 190 countries. The Competition was initially organized by the Foundation for Global Peace and
Environment (FGPE) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and now includes Bayer and Nikon as
organizers.
In an effort to highlight Climate Change in schools, UNEP and partners organized International Children’s
painting competition on Climate Change. The focus of the 16th and 17th Competitions was Climate Change. Winning
paintings were exhibited at the Tromso Museum from 3 June to 30 September 2007. The exhibition was hosted by the
Norwegian Ministry of Environment.
2011 marked the 20th edition of the International Children's Painting Competition. To celebrate the UN's International Year of Forests in 2011, the theme of the painting competition was ‘Life in the Forests. This year UNEP received 606,996 entries from 100 countries. The work has inspired people all over the world to see the environment through the eyes of children. The Competition encourages children to focus on a particular environmental issues and how these issues affect their communities. Its goal is to increase environmental awareness and action among children.
4. Tunza Regional Activities: Global Climate Week
UNEP Tunza regional focal points assisted in coordinating the Global Climate Week where young people in the UNEP
Tunza network participated in peaceful walks and other activities in several countries to mark climate week. They
used the opportunity to share the youth statement and their views on climate change with governments and
communities. The activities took place from 21 to 25 September 2009. Some of the countries include Pakistan, Nepal,
the Philippines, Republic of Korea, India, the Gambia, Zambia, Kenya Nigeria, Uganda (with the involvement of the
honourable Minister of the Environment), South Africa, Mozambique, Bahrain, Lebanon, Panama, the US and Canada.
In addition, UNEP Tunza launched a Seal the Deal! Buddy campaign. This was a one day campaign where Tunza network members received an online buddy campaign flyer and sent the same flyer to at least 7 of their friends encouraging them to sign the online climate petition. The aim of this campaign was to gather as many signatures as possible and pressure governments to sign a fair, balanced and effective climate agreement in Copenhagen.
5. Tunza Magazine
The UNEP Tunza magazine is one of the initiatives under the UNEP Tunza long term strategy on the involvement and
engagement of young people in environmental issues. The magazine is produced quarterly and in three languages
– English, French and Spanish. The magazine is distributed to young people around the world and in 2011, four
issues of Tunza magazine were produced. The issues include: Health & the Environment, Forests, Marine
Environment and Soil. Several issues in the past have focussed on climate change and related subjects.
All Tunza issues are posted on http://www.unep.org/Publications/contents/Tunza.asp. A new feature during the reporting period was the introduction of the Tunza mobile which allows young people to access the magazine on their mobile phone. This has been a huge success and now registers several thousand subscribers.
6. Children environmental series
UNEP published a children's environmental series and two out of the seven storybooks are on the theme of
climate change and on what children can do to mitigate the effects of climate change. The series is hosted on the
Tunza website http://unep.org/tunza/children/story_time.aspx.
7. UNEP/UNESCO YouthXchange guidebook on climate change and lifestyles
UNEP, in collaboration with UNESCO, launched a guide book on Climate Change and lifestyles aimed at young people
aged 15-24 as part of the YouthXchange Initiative. The guide book is a training kit, which seeks to promote
sustainable lifestyles through education, dialogue, awareness raising and capacity-building. (www.youthxchange.net).
Upcoming UNEP Tunza activities:
1. UNEP ROA -Generation Earth Summit on the Environment
The UNEP Regional Office for Africa (ROA) and Generation Earth, a South African youth NGO, is organizing the Tunza
Generation Earth Summit / pre-COP 17 meeting in Johannesburg from 22 – 24 November 2011. This Summit will
bring together 40 youth from the Africa region to network and exchange ideas on how to better care for the
environment, mitigate the effects of climate change and adapt to a sustainable lifestyle. The Summit will also
launch the Africa youth agenda on the road to RIO +20. The Summit will offer interactive workshops, thought-
provoking discussions, field trips, and will culminate in a youth statement on climate change to be presented to
the UN COP17. It is planned that 20 youth from the Summit will proceed to the COP where they will share best
practices and showcase environmental work undertaken by youth in Africa.
A series of activities are planes for the RIO+20 meeting. A number of these activities address climate change related actions as follows:
2. Regional and Sub-regional Conferences
- North America: Bekerley, California on 11 – 12 August. It brought together young people from all over North America to prepare for the Bandung Conference. The main focus was “Rio+20”;
- Europe: Bonn, Germany on 6 - 7 September. Will bring together young people from all over Europe to prepare for the Bandung Conference – the main focus will be “Rio+20”
- The Asia and the Pacific region will have 5 sub-regional meetings between October 2011 and March 2012 to engage young people in the various sub-region on the “Rio+20” process
- Latin America and the Caribbean will hold its regional meeting in Bogota, Colombia on 24 – 25 November to engage youth from the region on the “Rio+20” process;
- West Asia will also organize a regional Conference in early 2012 to engage youth in the region on the ““Rio+20”” process.
3. Youth GEO5 “Tunza Acting for a Better World”
The Bandung Conference started a process for young people to develop their version of the UNEP state of the
environment report – the Global Environment Outlook (GEO5). The publication will borrow from the factual
information from the GEO5 process but also provide ideas to young people on how that can address the various
environmental problems highlighted in the report. It will use practical examples of young people doing things to
cope with environmental issues in their countries and communities.
The publication which will be entitled “Tunza Acting for a Better World” is planned to be launched in
Rio during “Rio+20”.
4. Global Forum for Children and Youth at Rio, June 2012
Representatives from the national and regional processes and the Tunza International Conference will meet in Rio de
Janeiro in June 2012 for 5 days to discuss the sustainable development agenda from a youth perspective. Some of the
participants will be accredited to the official “Rio+20” process to present the perspectives of young
people and to bring feedback from the official process to the Global Forum. The Forum will address aspects of youth
and climate change.
For more information contact Theodore Oben at theodore.oben@unep.org or Fanina Kodre at Fanina.Kodre@unep.org
United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO)
1. YouthXchange climate change and lifestyles guidebook (UNEP/UNESCO)
The new UNESCO/UNEP YouthXchange guidebook on climate
change and lifestyles is the first in a series of thematic guidebooks supporting the YouthXchange Initiative.
The thematic guidebooks take into account challenges, opportunities, good practices and case studies on global
challenges. UNEP and UNESCO’s YouthXchange Guidebook on Climate Change and Lifestyles aims to answer the
questions that young people aged from 15 to 24 may have, and to inspire them in their daily lives. It explores the
interrelationship between climate change and lifestyles through a scientific, political, economic, social, ethical
and cultural angle and identifies actions young people might take towards more sustainable lifestyles. It channels
the relevant information related to climate change in a less abstract and frightening manner, helping young people
develop alternate visions and set goals towards improving their future. This guidebook provides information, case
studies and useful tips around topics relevant to young people and their everyday lives, such as food and drink,
travel and transport, leisure and entertainment.
2. Climate change education starters guidebook (UNESCO/UNEP)
UNESCO together with UNEP developed a Climate Change
Starter’s Guidebook provides an introduction and overview for education planners and practitioners on the
wide range of issues relating to climate change and climate change education, including causes, impacts, mitigation
and adaptation strategies, as well as some broad political and economic principals.
The aim of this guide is to serve as a starting point for mainstreaming climate change education. It has been
created to enable education planners and practitioners to understand the issues at hand, to review and analyse
their relevance to particular national and local contexts, and to facilitate the development of education policies,
curricula, programmes and lesson plans.
The guide covers four major thematic areas:
1. the science of climate change, which explains the causes and observed changes;
2. the social and human aspects of climate change including gender, health, migration, poverty and ethics;
3. policy responses to climate change including measures for mitigation and adaptation; and
4.education approaches including education for sustainable development, disaster reduction and sustainable
lifestyles.
A selection of key resources in form of publication titles or websites for further reading is provided after each
of the thematic sections.
3. The Experts Meeting on Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development and Adaptation in SIDS was held on 21-23 September in the Bahamas. It marked a defining moment in UNESCO's work on climate change for sustainable development, setting the stage for the Organization's action in support of SIDS for the remaining years of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and beyond.
This three-day expert meeting gathered around 100 experts, primarily from SIDS in the Caribbean, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, representing a multi-disciplinary and diverse group of stakeholders to discuss and reflect on the challenges that climate change poses to education systems in SIDS, and the role that education can play in adaptation to climate change.
The group of experts developed recommendations which included among others: the importance of linking education for disaster risk reduction and climate change education for adaptation in SIDS; a proposal to develop a SIDS research agenda, where schools and communities can contribute through participation in research and benefit from the potential of SIDS to serve as living laboratories for long-term climate studies; the support to interregional SIDS-SIDS cooperation; the importance of learning from local and indigenous knowledge and respecting other systems of knowledge and values such as the relationship of people, land, sea, ancestors and the spiritual realm; the need to diversify climate change communication and make use of information and communication technologies, especially social media and mobile phones in SIDS; and to link climate change education and the arts.
The recommendations will serve as a contribution to the upcoming 17th Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC in Durban, South Africa, in December 2011 and the Rio+20 Conference in June 2012 as well as the End-of-Decade Conference of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in 2014. For more information click here
For more information contact Julia Heiss at j.heiss@unesco.org
United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)
1. Screening of UN-HABITAT Cartoon on Climate Change
UN-HABITAT and the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) are planning to screen a cartoon titled ‘The
Change’, a short film on climate change to children attending public primary schools under the control of the
authority in Kampala. The film, produced by UN-HABITAT is a simple to understand and remarkable educational cartoon
capturing the entire climate change debate from unsustainable production and consumption, impact of climate change
on communities to simple adaptation measures. The cartoon ends with a message that it is not too late to fix our
past behavior but that society needs to act now in not only mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and polluting the
environment but also putting in place adaptation measures.
The cartoon screening will target the 110 primary schools under the control of the KCCA. The cartoon will be shown to children between the ages of 6 and 9 in Class 1 to 4 of primary school.
Posters will be printed in Nairobi and distributed to the schools. A follow-up mission will take place 3 months later to learn from the teachers how children reacted to the cartoon and to know what actions were taken by the children and the school.
2. Youth Caravan to COP 17/CMP 7
The Youth Caravan that is part
of the "We Have Faith” campaign will kick-start in
Nairobi, Kenya on 7 November 2011 and will travel through 3 African countries to reach Durban by 23 November 2011.
The initiative brings together faith-based organizations, community-based organizations and youth movements from
across Africa and draws the support from global climate justice and faith based movements to demand action, as well
as give options and solutions.
The caravan will travel by road through several African countries carrying the message of climate justice. The young participants will use music, dance and drama to create awareness about climate change and COP 17/CMP 7. The participants will also share community initiatives on climate change, meet with stakeholders in different countries and amplify the voice of young people throughout the continent.
The caravan will complete its journey with a final performance in the soccer stadium in Durban with approximately
1,000 youth performing in a mass choir together with celebrities from Africa and beyond, including Archbishop
Desmond Tutu and the former president of Ireland Mary Robinson.
For more information contact John Mwaura
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
1. Climate Ambassador Programme
In 2009, in the week before the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s COP15, UNICEF organized the
Children’s Climate Forum in Copenhagen (CCF or CCFC). The true launch of the Climate Ambassador Programme,
the event brought together 160 young people from 44 countries to discuss climate change and build their skills to
make change in their communities. For UNICEF, this was in many ways the beginning of widespread action on climate
change and adolescent participation in Country Offices and NatComs worldwide. Below are many of the stories of how
UNICEF offices prepared their Ambassadors for the Forum and what Climate Ambassadors did with UNICEF after the CCF
with their increased skills and knowledge.
2. Classroom Education Programmes
Canada: UNICEF Canada works with educators (boards, teaching
organizations and education federations) to raise awareness around children’s rights and how to bring the
rights based approach into the classroom in a practical and manageable way that will make the classroom a better
place. UNICEF Canada has integrated "Learning for a Sustainable Future" workshops into this programme,
featuring trainings at conferences for teachers and students. UNICEF has also created a number of "Green
Learning" sites, with numerous resources for teachers online. This has been shared with all of the teachers
within UNICEF's network. Since UNICEF works with both teachers and professors who teach teachers in training,
the change can often reach far more people indirectly than directly.
Luxembourg: UNICEF is working to support the government's initiative to integrate sustainable
development into school curricula, as a part of the Decade for Education for Sustainable Development. UNICEF
Luxembourg feeds into government dialogues and has shared the tools that other UNICEF offices have developed when
needed.
China: UNICEF is running Environment, Climate Change & Disaster courses in a few pilot schools, and have
support to scale this up to 100 schools. They have developed an interactive and integrated whole school climate
programme, which includes both content for the classroom as well as tangible actions such as planting trees,
stabilizing slopes, planting vegetables for nutrition purposes, and teaching children to calculate their carbon
emissions.
3. Community Education Programmes
In order to make widespread environmental change in a community, many UNICEF offices have recognized a need to not
only engaging children but larger communities. Identifying key social events and community values in a region,
these projects can often reach people that traditional environmental programmes may miss. Even for children,
engaging outside of the classroom can ensure that environmental ideas are translated into practical action.
4. Tree Plantations & Gardens
All over the world, tree plantations are often seen as the easiest way to engage children in an environmental event
or project, and when approached this way, they remain little more than a one-off event. These projects become more
valuable when they are bundled with long-term engagement in that community or when accompanied by community
trainings to ensure the trees are cared for and protected.
5. Action Research
The idea of Action Research has been very promising in many areas besides environment, and there are examples of
how this idea can be very effective at engaging adolescents. By training adolescents with key research skills and
focusing research on critical social issues, the outcomes can directly translate into action plans for community
projects or into advocacy at a local, regional or national level to the government.
6. Water, Sanitation and Health
As WASH is both a key area of UNICEF’s operations worldwide and also one of the sectors and resources that
will be most impacted by climate change, WASH projects are a natural fit for climate change interventions.
Furthermore, water quality testing and monitoring is very straightforward to train children and youth to do at
their schools and community water sources. When young people are conducting these tests, they can be more frequent
and more distributed than if an expert outside of the community is doing testing, and the youth and their families
become strong advocates for water quality management.
For more details about UNICEF’s work please contact Ms. Stephanie Hodge (shodge@unicef.org), Ms. Takae
Ishizuka (tishizuka@unicef.org)
Earth Child Institute (ECI)
1. Side-event at United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting on Youth
In July, ECI co-organized a side event entitled: Youth Leaders Speak Out About Effective Inter-Generational Climate
Action (link to press release) with United Nations Environment Programmme (UNEP), the World Association of Girl
Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), the Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education, and in
partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
2. Establishment of youth-led Nepal country office
ECI's youth-led Nepal country office is up and running making strides for children in the Dolpa district. Their
Facebook page is accessible here.
For more information contact Donna Goodman
TakingITGlobal
TakingITGlobal is in the process of conducting a series of five European Youth Environment and Education forums to
involve youth, educators, and environmentalists in forming recommendations to the agenda of the UN Rio+20 Earth
Summit.
TakingITGlobal has launched Youthmovements.org, a collaborative mapping
platform for youth-led and youth-focused projects. The online tool is an updated version of TakingITGlobal’s
project management infrastructure and a series of monthly inquiry groups to increase cross sector contact. This
project is not solely focused upon climate initiatives, but aims to draw connections between actors across
movements.
For more information contact Liam O’Doherty.
World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS)
WAGGGS current activities at national and regional level are supported by the World Thinking
Day Activity Pack that helps children and young people to speak out and take action. Chapter four of the Pack
contains the demands that WAGGGs members are delivering to decision-makers. It is currently implemented at both
national and regional levels in 145 member countries with a special focus on the African region.
WAGGGS has also recently published the “Guidelines
for WAGGGS Members to promote non-formal climate change education to decision-makers” which aims to
support advocacy efforts on Article 6 of the UNFCCC at the national level.
For more information contact Bernadette Fischler