Young Climate Champions: Building Resilient Schools and Communities

A series of school-based programme engaged 150+ students and teachers in understanding climate risks and turning climate knowledge into practical action for safer, cleaner and more resilient schools and communities.

Young Climate Champions: Building Resilient Schools and Communities is a school-based climate education initiative designed to help young people understand climate change, recognise local risks and adopt environmentally responsible practices. The programme connected scientific concepts with the everyday experiences of students in Chitwan.

Nepal is experiencing changing rainfall patterns, rising temperatures and more frequent hazards, including floods, droughts, heatwaves, forest fires and landslides. Because schools shape knowledge, habits and community values, they provide an important platform for building climate literacy and developing future leaders who can influence action at home and in their communities.

Why schools and young people matter: young people can carry climate knowledge from classrooms into households and neighbourhoods; practical learning helps students connect national climate challenges with local experience; school-based action can strengthen environmental responsibility, preparedness and long-term resilience.

The training used presentations, visual demonstrations, group discussions, practical exercises, games and reflection activities. Rather than treating students as passive recipients, the approach encouraged them to analyse causes and effects, develop future scenarios, demonstrate waste segregation and identify climate actions they could undertake themselves.

Students explored the difference between weather and climate, the role of greenhouse gases and the ways human activities – such as deforestation, transport, industrial activity and open burning of waste – contribute to climate change. Local examples helped participants understand impacts on rainfall, temperature, biodiversity, livelihoods and water resources.

The resilience session introduced major climate-induced hazards affecting Nepal, including floods, landslides, droughts, heatwaves, forest fires and lightning. Students examined how these events affect people, infrastructure, agriculture, ecosystems and livelihoods, and then discussed practical adaptation and preparedness measures.

By developing future scenarios, students moved beyond identifying problems and began considering how individuals, schools and communities can reduce vulnerability and strengthen preparedness.

Students learned the principles of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (3Rs), the importance of segregating waste at source and the role of recycling and resource recovery in reducing pollution. Discussions also connected improper disposal and open burning with greenhouse-gas emissions and wider environmental degradation.

A practical “Know Your Plastic” component introduced the seven common plastic categories, identification codes and different levels of recyclability using everyday products. Students considered responsible consumption, ways to reduce single-use plastics and actions that can be adopted at school and at home.

The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene session linked safe water, sanitation and personal hygiene with climate resilience and public health. Students examined how floods, droughts and extreme temperatures can affect water availability, water quality, sanitation systems and the risk of waterborne disease.

The final thematic session focused on heatwaves and floods – two hazards increasingly relevant to Chitwan. Through presentation and discussion, students learned about causes, impacts on health and livelihoods, and safety measures that can be taken before, during and after an emergency.

The activity strengthened students’ confidence to recognise risks, communicate safety messages and identify steps that individuals, households and schools can take to reduce disaster impacts.

Students demonstrated strong interest throughout the sessions and identified simple but meaningful actions: segregating waste, reducing plastic use, conserving water, maintaining hygiene and sharing climate knowledge. The programme created a foundation for young people to become informed and proactive contributors to environmental sustainability and community resilience.

Equipping students with climate knowledge, practical environmental skills and disaster preparedness.

Nepal is experiencing changing rainfall patterns, rising temperatures and more frequent hazards, including floods, droughts, heatwaves, forest fires and landslides. Because schools shape knowledge, habits and community values, they provide an important platform for building climate literacy and developing future leaders who can influence action at home and in their communities.

Why schools and young people matter: young people can carry climate knowledge from classrooms into households and neighbourhoods; practical learning helps students connect national climate challenges with local experience; school-based action can strengthen environmental responsibility, preparedness and long-term resilience.

Students demonstrated strong interest throughout the sessions and identified simple but meaningful actions: segregating waste, reducing plastic use, conserving water, maintaining hygiene and sharing climate knowledge. The programme created a foundation for young people to become informed and proactive contributors to environmental sustainability and community resilience.