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Engaging youth in climate action!

Doing our part to save the planet from human-caused destruction is ultimately our responsibility.

UNICEF

English
नेपाली

What is climate change?

Climate change refers to variations in global temperatures and weather patterns that occur over time. Variability in climate happens naturally, but today’s climate change comes from global warming that is primarily caused by human activities that are altering the composition of the atmosphere.

This image shows a gif of global warming — Illustration: Voices of Youth

How does climate change impact us?

Climate change can impact societies, economies, and ecosystems.

It can lead to extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, increased health risks, and the displacement of people.

Global warming is the increase in temperatures recorded over many years Earth temperature has increased with 1 degree the last 150 years due to human activities. Certain gases in Earth’s atmosphere called greenhouse gases (such as Carbon Dioxide and Methane) block heat from escaping. These gases occur naturally in the atmosphere and keep Earth at a stable temperature. However, human activities – such as burning of fossil fuels, driving vehicles, food production, cutting down forests and excessive consumption – have changed the natural cycle by emitting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, causing the Earth to heat up.

Tackling climate change is everyone’s responsibility!

Our activities emit greenhouse gases and contribute to climate change and that our environment suffers. Oceans, land, air, plants, animals and energy from the Sun all influence one another. Earth’s climate and ecosystems – including us - functions like one big, connected system, that we need to take care of.

But we can all help tackling climate change by cutting your carbon emissions (often referred to as mitigation) by adapting and spreading sustainable lifestyle changes.

However, these actions cannot prevent all climate risks, which is why commitments and regulations from governments are necessary too.

What is your carbon footprint?

A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide and methane) that are generated by our actions.

Globally, the individual average carbon footprint is close to 4 tons. To have the best chance of avoiding a 2℃ rise in global temperatures, the average global carbon footprint per year needs to drop under 2 tons by 2050.

Lowering your individual carbon footprints doesn’t happen overnight! But by making small changes and sharing knowledge with our friends and family, we can start making a big difference.

Handling our waste: The 3 R's - reduce, reuse and recycle

It is important to promote a conscious use of resources to help reduce the amount of waste we produce every day. This means avoiding buying excessive quantities or single-use products.

🍀Reduce: We should not consume more than we actually need. Also, we should minimize the number of products that, after being used, will become waste.

🍀Reuse: To reuse is to be able to utilize things again, for the same purpose or another one, before getting rid of them, in order to reduce our volume of garbage.

🍀Recycle: Recycling is the way of processing used materials and transforming them into products that can have a new use.

This image shows an illustration of three people surrounding each other — Illustration: Voices of Youth

Food for thoughts

If you really care, and you really want to, there are simple measures you can take to help us protect our planet - remember once you know, there’s no going back! Knowledge is power!

How can you reduce your carbon footprint?

There are multiple avenues one can follow when trying to reduce your carbon footprint, we’ve listed down some avenues for you:

This image shows a gif of a car emitting gas — Illustration: Voices of Youth

✅Transportation

Example:

1. By trying to arrange connecting flights so I don’t fly a lot

2. Switching to an electric vehicle

3. Carpooling and using public transportation where possible

✅ Waste Management

✅ Food habits

✅ Purchasing habits and power

✅ Clean energy

Thinking questions

What habits are you willing to let go of? And what green habits are you willing to take up?
If the climate changed between 1990s to 2021 - How long will it take for the effects of climate change to be irreversible?
What are some policies and practices you can change within your locality?
As a consumer- what kind of packaging, food, or clothing items will you be purchasing/not purchasing from here on out?