Despite not being even 18 years old yet, Jordi López, from Spain, is already leaving a positive impact on his community. Jordi has always been curious about global issues. One day, he came across a UN report saying that by 2025, there will be more than 200 million climate refugees worldwide. This report sparked an interest in him to find out more about the climate crisis, its consequences and what can be done to face up to it. He then decided to volunteer at COP25 in Madrid, Spain, to learn more about the global discussions around this issue and become more engaged in finding solutions.
Soon after, he stumbled across UN CC:Learn and completed three courses – Cities and Climate Change, Human Health and Climate Change and the Introductory e-Course on Climate Change – which gave him a solid basis to start thinking about concrete actions he could do to join the fight against climate change.
He then founded World Zero CO2, an online calculator for youth which gives people’s carbon footprint while providing tips and solutions to live more sustainably. The project is going well and has been piloted in two schools in Barcelona, Spain, as well as with a large group of youth from across the globe. Jordi has presented the results at the two schools and proposed follow-ups to see if the schools manage to reduce their carbon footprints.
Jordi López and his World Zero CO2 carbon footprint calculator. (Personal archive)
In addition to this endeavor, Jordi has also won a hackathon and got support from Fundación Telefónica to develop his new initiative: Mentally Ecological, which focuses on the slow living concept.
“I am taking the five recommended courses in the UN CC:Learn Teacher Portal to expand my knowledge on global warming and use it in World Zero C02.” – Jordi López, 2022 UN CC:Learn Champion.