Become a Climate Champion

The climate crisis is here and getting worse each year. The world continues to get warmer at an alarming rate, putting almost every child at risk of more frequent and destructive climate hazards – air pollution, cyclones, disease, flooding, heatwaves and water scarcity. As these hazards continue to intensify, more children will be harmed; more will die. 

Over 1 billion children are at extremely high risk of severe and destructive climate hazards.

These crisis will not affect everyone equally. Children will suffer more than adults, with those in the poorest communities bearing the biggest burden.

In India, extreme weather events like cyclones and floods destroy infrastructure, including homes, schools, and healthcare facilities. For example, in mid-July 2020, floods in India affected 2.4 million children and young people (and a total of over 6 million people) in 10 states (UNICEF, 2020), leading to diseases such as cholera or diarrhoea, which is still a leading killer of children and young people worldwide.   

Increasingly erratic rainfall patterns, drought, water stress and growing water demands reduce the amount of safe drinking water for children and either expose the children to health risks or cause households to migrate.   

Poor air quality and pollution adversely affect children's health and cause death. Children breathe twice as quickly as adults and are more vulnerable to air pollution than adults. (UNICEF, 2016)   

For safeguarding children—especially the most vulnerable—a substantial increase in financing is required. Funding for adaptation must be scaled-up, especially for the essential social services the children rely on.    

#MissionLiFE

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in partnership with UNICEF and YuWaah (Generation Unlimited India), has launched a new climate action campaign to raise awareness about the greatest threat to this generation and generations to come.   The campaign seeks to create an ecosystem that will reinforce and enable environmentally friendly behaviour to be self-sustainable and link up with the Mission LiFE campaign launched by the Prime Minister of India and the UN Secretary-General last year.  

Join young climate champions Prakriti, Biju, Tuli and their friend Frisbee in their fight against climate change.

• Raise awareness on how climate change is affecting our environment
• Encourage your friends and family to spread messages on tackling climate change
• Take action through the MeriLiFE App.  

Meet our amazing Climate Champions 

What is UNICEF doing in India to respond to the climate crisis?      

Young people are essential to climate action. They have the passion/drive, critical skills, experiences and ideas for safer, more sustainable societies. They will be living with the impacts of climate change and have the right to participate in decisions that affect their future.

UNICEF works with partners at global and local levels to ensure that children can live in a safe and clean environment. Our actions are structured around four approaches which involve making children the centre of climate change strategies and response plans and recognizing children as agents of change. We aim at protecting children from the impact of climate change and environmental degradation and reducing emissions and pollution

• UNICEF is supporting the Government of India (NITI Aayog and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) on Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment.)  , an India-led global mass movement to nudge individual and community action to protect and preserve the environment.   

• UNICEF works with partners to ensure that children and young people can live in a safe and clean environment. The best investments we can make for children and young people now are to ensure the services they need to survive, grow and thrive are resilient to climate and environmental shocks and to support them with the education and skills they will need to adapt and create a green transition and better world.   

• UNICEF supports local climate actions such as youth engagement in water conservation and environmental sustainability through youth networks like Youth4Water, Maha Youth for Climate Action (MYCA), and youth groups like NCC, NSS and NYKS.   

• UNICEF is working with the Government of India to support its flagship programmes and incorporate climate resilience for sustainable development. Examples of these are the Jal Jeevan Mission for sustaining water sources against climate change, Swachh Bharat Mission for sustaining access to sanitation services and WASH in school and health care facilities.   

• Making children and young people the centre of climate change strategies and response plans and recognizing children and young people as agents of change   

• Advocating for environmentally sustainable and climate resilient interventions, from waste management in communities to solarizing healthcare systems    

• Through Generation Unlimited India or YuWaah, UNICEF’s multi-sectoral partnership platform, we have been able to usher in a wider pool of private sector players who are interested in joining hands with Governments, young people and the UN to bolster their role in the advancing green skilling, jobs and youth-led social impact initiatives!         

• UNICEF works closely with the Government of India on flagship initiatives for promoting pro-planet behaviours and is at the core of our collaboration with NITI Aayog and the Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.