Library Environment

“World Youth Report- Youth and Climate Change” (UNDESA) 2010 

The World Youth Report focus on youth and climate change, and is intended to highlight the important role young people play in addressing climate change, and to offer suggestions on how young people might be more effectively integrated as individuals and collective agents of change within the realm of climate change adaptation and mitigation. The Report is designated to assist youth and youth organizations in educating themselves and to become more actively involved in combating the threat of climate change. It is also meant to affirm the status of young people as key stakeholders in the fight against climate change. The publication comes at a time when efforts to address climate change are receiving unparalleled attention on the international arena, offering youth a unique opportunity for their voice to be heard in the debate. To read the report, please visit here 

School gardens can help to provide healthy school meals and generate income for school funds, but they are primarily a platform for learning – learning how to grow food for a healthy diet, improve the soil, protect the environment, market food for profit, enjoy garden food and, not least, advocate it to others. FAO’s Teaching Toolkit, contains lessons which supplement and support gardening activities. These “garden lessons” should have a regular place in the classroom timetable, on top of gardening time. The “garden curriculum” aims to give learners some control over the “food cycle” process, through planning, organizing, promoting, evaluating and – not least – celebrating achievements. The garden mix of theory, practice, enjoyment and ownership is a winning combination for improving lives.For more information, please visit here 

This publication aims to inform governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and young people on how youth participation has taken place at sessions of the UNFCCC starting with COP 5, highlighting increased efforts by young people to advocate for effective solutions to tackle climate change. For governments, it is intended as a guide to better understanding of young people’s involvement in the UNFCCC negotiation process. For the United Nations family, it is intended as a means of sharing information and best practices on how young people participate in international policy making processes. For the public at large, it provides inspiration and assurance of the commitment by young people to achieve a more sustainable world.To read the publication, please visit here 
This youth supplement to UNFPA’s flagship State of the World Population Report addresses climate change through the perspectives and experiences of seven young people (from Brazil, Marshall Islands, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Philippines and U.S.A.). It explores how environmental changes are affecting their lives, and what further climatic changes could mean for young people’s lives, livelihoods, health, rights and development. To read the publication, please visit English /French /Spanish
This youth publication is the result of a two-year process in which more than 3 000 African youth from 41 different countries participated. As Chapter 25 of Agenda 21 clearly stipulates, youth have unique perspectives that need to be taken into account (UN 1992). These unique perspectives are captured in the many youth contributions in this publication. The contributions cover different genres-poems, articles, proverbs, drawings and paintings. Many of the photos and paintings capture not only the immense beauty of our environment, but also the unfortunate harm that we are inflicting on it. As for the poems, they echo the anguished voice of our polluted cities and exult the unsung splendor of our biodiversity. Articles and quotes suggest the way forward. At the heart of this powerful youth voice is a desire to steer Africa towards an environmentally vibrant future. To read the publication, please visit here 

This chapter begins with a brief overview of the condition of the world’s environment and variations in environmental quality around the globe. It then addresses the adequacy of existing policy responses, which provides a context for exploring the roles youth can play in environmental affairs. It examines how these roles might be strengthened through such means as environmental education, whose importance and shortcomings are analyzed. The chapter then turns to the role the media plays in contributing to-and sometimes impeding- social learning in environmental affairs. To read the chapter, please visit here 
Sustainable Training kit – composed of a guide and website – designed to assist teachers, public authorities, youth groups, and NGOs in delivering information on Sustainable Consumption.To read the guide, please visit here

Global environmental change gives rise to ethical challenges that need to be grasped within a framework of critical thinking. Young men and women, representing 40-70% of the populations of the Arab Region, are often excluded from decision making, even though they are directly concerned by many development challenges, including climate change and its social impacts. In this context, UNESCO Beirut organized a two day regional workshop (April, 2013) to target a group of young Arab social entrepreneurs to raise their awareness on the climate change and its social impact.

To read the full report click here.

 

TUNZA: Acting for a Better World is in part a call to action and in part a casebook showing how young people are challenging the status quo in their homes and their communities. Read about a rural lighting initiative of Indian students and the radio-based biodiversity awareness campaign aimed at reaching a million people in North West Cameroon. Be inspired by the setting up of a Fair Trade chocolate company by a young person in the Netherlands to reduce child slavery in West Africa and the breeding of the Mayan apple snail by Mexican young people to boost food supplies and livelihoods through shell-based handicrafts. These innovators are blazing a trail towards a more sustainable future. The book, inspired by the findings of GEO 5, is also aimed at inspiring you, young people, to do more in your lives and the careers you choose, whether as entrepreneurs, scientists, activists or transformational policy-makers.

To read the full report click here.

The objective of this new publication by the United Nations Joint Framework Initiative on Children, Youth and Climate Change is to highlight concrete work young people do to incite their governments and the international community to scale up action on climate change and raise ambition towards a post-2020 climate change regime. It is designed as a tool and a source of inspiration for developing and carrying out projects, initiatives and campaigns to increase awareness of the causes and impacts of climate change, promote sustainable lifestyles and advance green low-carbon development.

To read the full report click here.

Throughout April and May of 2012, UNICEF New Zealand, with the support of the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO and in partnership with 350 Aotearoa, Generation Zero, Global Poverty Project, P3 Foundation and UN Youth New Zealand, ran consultations with young people (15-24yrs) across the country and online in an effort to provide them with the opportunity to share their views ahead of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). This report is a compilation of the opinions and ideas that came out of these consultations.

To read the full report click here.

The outcome document of the Rio+20 conference “The Future we Want” covered the three themes with twenty-six separate thematic areas and cross-sectoral issues for action and follow-up, ranging from food security and sustainable agriculture to health and population to specific geographic areas such as Africa. It concluded that “eradicating poverty is the greatest global challenge facing the world today.” Ultimately, it reflected a common understanding among all of the countries on core ideas.

To read the full report click here.

Growing Together in a Changing Climate: The United Nations, Young People, and Climate Change” contains information on some of the many climate change initiatives– projects, campaigns, educational tools, websites and publications – produced by the United Nations and young people, independently or in partnership. These range from global initiatives raising awareness for combating climate change, to advocacy.

To read the full report click here.