United Arab Emirates

From 7 September to 4 October 2026, the pupils at the German International School Dubai (DISD) once again spent four weeks focusing on climate protection.
Every autumn since the UN Climate Change Conference took place in the United Arab Emirates in 2023, the school has seen ‘Little Climate Protectors’ in action!

For each action they took, they were allowed to colour in a circle in blue, green or yellow in their collection booklet. Together, the 217 children from 12 classes collected 4,615 Blue Footprints for energy-saving actions, 3,832 Green Footprints for climate-friendly transport and 3,747 Footprints for climate protection on their plates – making a total of 12,194 Climate Footprints – a fantastic result!

The twelve classes from grades 2 to 4 joined in and worked hard to collect ‘Grüne Meilen’ / ‘Green Footprints’. The first-graders also took part in the Climate Weeks with creative activities, though they will start collecting their own ‘Green Footprints’ a little later, once they have settled into everyday school life.

In their ‘Footprints’ booklets, the children noted down every day what they personally can do for the climate:

• switch off the lights when no one is in the room,
• correctly separate rubbish so that it can be recycled properly – by separating plastic, paper, organic waste and general waste,
• travel to school by bus or in car-sharing groups, and
• eat locally produced Food (what is not that easy living in a desert area)

In the ‘Primary School Lab’, students created fantastic models, posters and collages from waste materials using the motives ‘Our Green Dubai’ and ‘Plastic in the Sea’. They also devised a sorting game to practise waste separation.

Year 2 carried out an art project on the theme of ‘upcycling’ and created new objects from waste materials, among them ‘Batteriela’, a creature that collects empty batteries and refills them. Another class worked together to design a large poster of a garbage truck. 

Year 3a carried out their own survey within the class, including evaluation and a diagram, to find out how environmentally friendly they already are and where they could still make improvements.

They set themselves the following goal: “We want to take small steps together to help our environment. Because if everyone joins in, we can achieve a great deal.” 

The results of the project are still on display in the school building, including the exhibition ‘Small Actions – Big Impact’, which illustrates the long journey of a pair of jeans through the manufacturing process.

The children participated with great enthusiasm and are delighted that their ‘Grüne Meilen’ are once again part of the campaign message for this year’s UN Climate Change Conference.