The next generation cares about our planet
Youth for climate change and clean air
Mungunzul is an energetic girl who loves nature with big dreams for the future. She is 16 years old and lives with her parents and four siblings in Sumber soum of Gobi-Sumber, the smallest province in Mongolia, located 247 km from the capital city. This province is characterized by extreme weather conditions with temperatures spanning from +40 degrees Celsius to – 40 degrees and harsh sandstorms.
"When I was little, we never experienced yellow dust storms or migratory sand dunes. However, in recent years, such phenomena increased in our province. When the sandstorms happen, the daytime becomes as dark as night, and the dust becomes so thick that we cannot see the gers or people in front of us,” explained Mungunzul when asked to provide examples of how climate change is affecting her life.
According to the Asian Development Bank (2021), a combination of geographic and social factors results in Mongolia’s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. Nonetheless, the country is ranked 67th out of 181 countries in the 2020 ND-GAIN Index12 and presents a score of 4.2 in the Children’s Climate Risk Index.3 Increased occurrence and severity of droughts, floods, windstorms, and steppe and forest fires disproportionately affect the most vulnerable communities. Air, soil and water pollution are major threats to child survival and development. Despite the measures taken by the authorities that resulted in improved air quality, the monthly average of PM 2.5 and PM10 levels were 60 µg/m3 and 107 µg/m3 respectively during the winters of 2020 and 2021,4 far above the levels recommended by WHO. 5
In 2021, thanks to the support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), UNICEF Mongolia, together with People in Need (PIN) INGO and The Scouts Association of Mongolia, joint efforts to help children and youth raise their voices on climate change and air pollution through a new initiative “YOUCCAN - Youth and children to advocate for climate change and clean air”. YOUCCAN is a platform established in 2020 together by UNICEF and the Scout Association of Mongolia to bring voices of young people to combat against climate change and air pollution. Since then, it has united 14 organisations and schools, raised awareness about air pollution among children and adolescents and organised voluntary activities such as air quality mapping using low-cost sensors. As part of this initiative, the “Teen Parliament” programme was developed in May 2021 in collaboration with the Parliament Sub-Committee on Sustainable Development Goals and the Parliament Research Institute. The Teen Parliament is a peer-to-peer educational programme and its main goal is to empower the young generation by increasing their knowledge on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), climate change, and environmental pollution. This platform also gives them an opportunity to have discussions on climate change with their peers, raise their voices to influence the decision-making progress, and volunteer in their communities to address climate change issues.
A call for the Teen Parliament was announced in September 2021, and 90 teen parliament members aged 15-17 years were selected from over 900 high school students from 21 provinces of Mongolia.
“I found out about the Teen Parliament programme in an unexpected way while I was browsing on Facebook. A volunteer of the Teen Parliament was providing information through live streaming and caught my interest immediately. I wrote an essay and filled out the application form right away because there were only 2 hours left before the registration would close. A week later, I was notified of being selected. From that day on, I started actively contributing to raising awareness on climate change!”, excitingly shared Mungunzul with a big smile on her face.
The Teen Parliament programme trained youth on climate change, air pollution and parliamentary education through lessons and workshops. As a result, the youth members gained skills to communicate, lead, act and advocate for to influence climate and environmental decisions.
“All the lessons and knowledge I gained, opened my eyes. I realized how little we know about the impact of climate change and air pollution. Every step we take can affect and increase global warming and air pollution. But we have the privilege to act and prevent them. So, I decided to spread the knowledge of what I learned from this programme among the students of my high school and presented to the Govisumber provincial Children’s Council the idea of cleaning all the trash from the Sumber garden stadium. Many children and adolescents liked it, and we pursued our plan successfully. After that, I was elected as the Head of the Children’s Council with 70% votes.”, said Mungunzul.
On 6 September 2022, Mungunzul together with a Teen Parliament member and the President of Mongolian Children’s Council, M. Garid, handed over a signed Call-to-Action board to the Minister of Environment and Tourism. The Call-to-Action board was the result of the “Climate Change and Youth” international conference that had taken place in Ulaanbaatar on 23-24 August 2022. Over 500 youth and children from all provinces of Mongolia as well as from other countries participated online and in person. The young participants attended workshops on issues, challenges and solutions to address climate change, air pollution, and gain awareness on how to be friendly to the environment. At the end of the conference, children gathered and signed the Call-to-Action board which is a reminder of how the climate will affect our future, and an invitation to the Mongolian government to sign the Intergovernmental Declaration on Children, Youth and Climate Action.
Mungunzul is eager to continue advocating for sustainable solutions to address climate change and expresses her excitement for her upcoming trip to New York where she will represent Mongolia at the Generation Unlimited events organized by UNICEF.
Generation Unlimited is the world’s first global Public Private Youth Partnership aimed at encouraging young people to learn and act, empowering and motivating them on preventing global warming and finding opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship, and social impact.
“I feel a great sense of responsibility in representing my country. My goal is to teach children and young people about environmental protection and encourage them to act in a way that is friendly to the Earth. One day I will have children and I want them to grow in a healthy environment within a generation that cares about our planet. I am sure that the event in New York will be a great experience, and an opportunity to raise awareness on climate change and air pollution”, said Mungunzul with enthusiasm.
