At AMALY KidsClub in Settat we keep seeing the same thing: when children talk about the planet, adults listen. This year children from different cities, and even different countries, came together for our Mini-COP30. It was a playful event built around the real COP30, the UN climate conference held in Brazil from 10 to 21 November 2025.
Maybe your child was there. Maybe you’re hearing about it for the first time. Either way, here are seven things worth knowing about COP and Mini-COP, explained the way we explain them to the kids.
What is COP?
Picture a huge meeting where nearly 200 countries send someone. They sit around one big table and try to answer a single question:
“How can we protect our planet?”
That meeting is the COP, short for Conference of the Parties. While it runs, countries share ideas, agree to cut pollution, look after forests and oceans, and make plans so Earth stays safe for the children who come after us.
We tell our kids it’s like a class meeting, only the class is the whole world.
What is Mini-COP30?
Mini-COP30 is the same idea, made for children. There aren’t any presidents or ministers in the room. The kids make the decisions.
They talk about what they love about the planet and what worries them: rubbish on the ground, dirty water, taps left running. Then they come up with their own fixes and make promises they can actually keep.
They get to practise being Earth ambassadors, a bit like the grown-ups in Brazil.
Why COP30 is special
COP30 took place in Belém, a city of about 1.3 million people at the edge of the Amazon rainforest. The Amazon is often called the lungs of the planet, so holding the meeting there sends a clear message.
The focus was on protecting nature and forests, saving the plants and animals that live in them, and making sure climate action is fair for everyone. That’s a big part of why we picked it as the model for our own event.
Countries make promises every year
Every country that comes to COP commits to something. Using more clean energy. Cutting pollution. Planting trees. Cleaning up rivers and seas. Teaching people how to live more lightly.
These are called climate commitments. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, each country is meant to update its plan every five years and report on how it’s going. Kids understand this straight away: it’s a school project you can’t finish in one night.
Our kids made promises too
Here are six of the promises children wrote down at Mini-COP30, in their own words:
- “I will plant more trees.”
- “I will save water at home.”
- “I will protect animals and never hurt them.”
- “I will stop anyone from cutting a tree for no reason.”
- “I will throw my trash in the bin, not on the ground.”
- “I will teach my family and friends how to care for the planet.”
None of these is huge on its own, and that’s the point. Put together, and repeated every day, they add up.
It builds confidence as well as knowledge
Mini-COP isn’t only about facts. During the event the children took turns speaking in front of the group, listened to each other, and built on each other’s ideas.
That practice matters. It’s how children learn they have something to say, and that people will listen when they say it.
Small voices count
COP30 is a reminder that everyone has a part to play in climate action: governments, families, and children too.
Mini-COP30 showed us that kids are never too small to make a difference. When your child turns off a tap, plants a seed or picks up a piece of rubbish, they’re looking after the planet we all share.
We’d love to see you at Mini-COP31 next year. Until then, we’ll keep learning, planting and dreaming up ideas together.