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Why climate change education for social transformation?
Education has the potential to empower individuals to become agents of change, as well as acquire the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes that will lead to a green transition in our societies.
What is the role of education as a key response to the climate crisis and what should transformative climate change education look like? What are the challenges countries face in integrating climate change education into education policies and curriculum? How can these challenges be overcome to ensure climate-ready education systems?
These are some of the questions which framed the discussion of the first webinar of the series, “Climate change education for social transformation – on the road to COP27,” which took place on 26 April 2022.
The event gathered hundreds of participants from all over the world, who shared their visions and perspectives on the meaning of climate change education today and its role in addressing and contributing to finding solutions to the climate crisis.
The workshop was opened by Vibeke Jensen, the Director of the Division for Peace and Sustainable Development of UNESCO, who spoke not only about the critical role of education in promoting social transformation through individual action, but also societal restructuring to imagine more sustainable futures. She referred to the global framework “ESD for 2030” and the growing commitment from education and environmental stakeholders to concretely promote climate change education, including at UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development and the first-ever joint ministerial session of Ministers of Education and Environment at COP26.
In her welcome remarks, Ina Parvanova, Director of the Communications and Engagement Division of UNFCCC, stated that the “role of climate change education is increasingly being recognized as a fundamental enabler in meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement.” She emphasized that “climate change education can play a key role in both adaptation and mitigation, enabling learners to be future-literate, to be equipped with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that guide us to low-carbon, climate resilient economies and societies.”
Saher Rashid Baig, Global Youth Advocate for Climate and the Right to a Healthy Environment, emphasized the voices and opinions of young people reflected in the drafted during the Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition event last year. From her perspective, it is a “necessity to empower all communities to see themselves as part of the solution to the climate crisis” and move away from current education systems towards a “project-based and experience-based education that incorporates science and traditional knowledge that can help inspire learners to understand how to make an impact in their communities.”
Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, Rector of International Islamic University Malaysia, spoke about the importance of teaching about climate change in a transversal, rather than compartmentalized, way and to personalize education based on learners’ norms, values, and local context. He stressed the “need to move out of the classroom to experience climate” and questioned what we should structurally aspire for when we consider today's education systems.
Antonia Wulff, Director of Research, policy, and advocacy at Education International highlighted that quality climate change education “addresses the ethical, cultural, political, social, economic dimensions of climate change,” and tackles the more controversial issues related to it, such as unequal contributions of countries, Indigenous knowledge, and gender. In addition, Antonia pointed out the importance of providing various forms of continuous professional development for teachers, as well as “updating national education policy and curricula, ensuring that climate change education is part of all levels of education and all subjects.”
Daniella Tilbury, Commissioner for Sustainable Development and Future Generations, HM Government of Gibraltar, placed a lot of emphasis on the fact that we need to change education systems to transform society. She pointed out that “education looking forward must be educational” and must provide students with the skills to interrogate and build a more sustainable future. From her point-of-view, climate change education encapsulates “understanding how our daily lives and our daily decisions, in our environments, in our home, in our work at play, influence the future that we would like.”
The panelists concluded that climate change education must be inclusive and interdisciplinary and move away from the notion of learning separate subjects. In addition, speakers agreed on the need to create education systems and policies that shift our current education towards a holistic approach at policy and school levels. Daniella Tilbury suggested involving “young people and young teachers with a different perspective on education in the design of educational policies and curriculum,” while Saher Rashid Baig added that “climate change education is not limited to young people only. We should be developing training models, local and national databases on climate education tools, and do whatever it takes to ensure everybody is empowered to act with the climate crisis in mind now and in the future.”
During the webinar, many questions on the role of climate change education have been collected from the diverse audience, which will feed into the upcoming monthly webinars focused on specific thematic areas.
This webinar is part of the webinars series on the road to COP27 organized by UNESCO and UNFCCC.
