The Climate Box: Children from Moldova will learn about climate change and carbon footprint

Children between the ages of 7 and 14 from the Republic of Moldova will learn about climate change and the reduction of carbon footprint, due to an innovative and interactive learning toolkit on climate change developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the region of Europe and Central Asia.

Thus, the Climate Box toolkit, also available as a smartphone application, encourages a climate and environment-friendly lifestyles. The educational toolkit was developed by UNDP with financial support from the Government of the Russian Federation.

“The subject of climate change requires complex approaches and determination. Education system plays an important role in bringing relevant knowledge of the young generation on climate change impacts and educating them in the spirit of reducing their carbon footprint. It is our role to teach them using interesting and attractive methods,” says Inga Podoroghin, Programme Specialist in the field of climate change, environment and energy at UNDP Moldova.

The Climate Box toolkit was developed by experts in the fields of climatology, geography, biology and economics, who have collaborated with teachers and writers of children’s literature. Now it is used by approx. 50,000 students from eight countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The Republic of Moldova is vulnerable to climate change, as droughts, heatwaves, frosts, strong storms or floods are phenomena that impacted the country over the past years. The heavy snowfall of April 22, 2017, which resulted in massive destruction of the trees in central and southern Moldova, when nature was in the process of spring bloom, as well as various material damage and long electricity disruptions, provoked discussions in the public space about how prepared the country is to deal with the consequences of climate change.

Original source: UNDP
Published on 01 April 2019