In 2021 the Zero Water Day Partnership with the support of the Mountain Partnership launched the Children’s Call To Action to protect mountain areas against the impacts of climate change at a virtual side event during the COP21 Climate Change Summit in Glasgow Scotland.
View the recording of Day 3; Transforming Our World; Children’s Voices for 2050.
Implementing the Call to Action 2021 - 2025
I: Education on the Mountains
i. Develop school learning modules, resources and educational tools for children on environmental and sustainable development education and global citizenship education, to enhance understanding of the challenges facing mountain regions.
ii. Empower children to become change agents and leaders of whole school, whole community action for mountain conservation.
II: Awareness of mountain as Water Towers
iii. Maintain the integrity of the mountain ecosystems for supporting and delivering globally important ecosystems services, including freshwater provision, and restore degraded mountain ecosystems
iv. Ensure water equality between highland and lowland populations, as well as intergenerational water equity
v. Promote traditional and indigenous knowledge and innovative practices for the sustainable management of natural resources in mountains
III: Tap into sustainable mountain tourism’s potential
vi. Promote courses for building capacity of children to sustainably engage in mountain tourism
vii. Engage and train mountain professionals and mountain guides to become climate change educators who can actively support school education programmes
viii. Develop mountain specific policies to foster mountain tourism modalities that could benefit local populations while respecting the environment.
Events 2023 - 2025
2023 official side event, UN Water Conference
2023 event hosted during COP 28 Climate Conference
2024 event hosted during COP 29 Climate Conference
2025 official side event for launch of UN International Year of Glacier Preservation
ZWDP works in schools to delivering education for sustainable development through the lens of mountains.
We collaborate with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in Naters Switzerland to introduce and empower children to become change agents and leaders of whole school, whole community action for mountain conservation. A recent example is the Ice to Ice project by the Ecole Moser Nyon.
