In his poem The Right to Dream (1995), Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano starts with “Who knows how the world will be in 2025!” and goes on to imagine a better future. Unfortunately, 2025 is coming up, and with each year passing our survival is at stake. This year alone, millions of people worldwide experienced extreme climate events, groundbreaking temperatures, genocides, and deadly exposure to toxic chemicals and pollution leading to mass death, injury, displacement, poverty, and trauma. Why have our education systems not caught up with this crisis?

Schools continue to be battlegrounds for the building of societies, and education can either be utilized to uphold the status quo or create a just and sustainable future. In a world where climate disasters are disrupting access to education, where eco-anxiety is prevalent among youth, and where pollution impacts of the health of millions of children, we must ensure that young people are equipped to tackle societal issues and the biggest issue facing our generation – the climate crisis.

Yet, we still lack comprehensive climate justice education. The Global Education Monitoring Report at UNESCO and the MECCE Project’s recent global mapping showed that the world scored only 50% in a test on how extensively their education systems cover climate change in their curriculum and syllabi. It also showed that most of the content related to climate change is still only taught in a science class, and not covered across other subject areas.

Attending public schools in Texas, I saw this playing out in practice. I saw how climate change was briefly mentioned and only framed as a future issue that will impact polar bears. The solutions that were brought up didn’t go beyond recycling and reducing one’s personal carbon footprint. It wasn’t until I interned for PODER’s Young Scholars for Justice (YSJ) program as a teenager, that the pieces began to fall into place. The YSJ curriculum centers environmental justice organizing, BIPOC movement history, local Indigenous cultures, and a critical analysis of social-political structures. Through various lessons, art and poetry workshops, guest speakers, and participating in organizing I was able to put words to describe the what, why, and how of the inequalities I had experienced and observed around me. It was also the first time I realized that traditional knowledge is a critical part of climate solutions. The cosmological stories of plants, tree spirits, Bodhisattva etc passed down to me from my Hakka & Indigenous Taiwanese ancestors were full of wisdom. The cultural knowledge I had grown up with was valuable outside my home.

Over the years, I’ve worked on numerous campaigns, from fighting against the petrochemical industry and for access to clean and affordable water, to advocating for fossil fuel phase out and cumulative impact policies. But it was only because the climate justice education I received, through PODER, through my mom’s stories, through community, through radical professors, through organizing allowed me to turn despair into action. I see education as a practice of freedom, as an opportunity to reclaim culture, rewrite history, and reimagine our world.

This is what led me to co-create environmental justice curricula and programming alongside our incredible BIPOC team, through my nonprofit Start:Empowerment.

I believe it is imperative for all K-12 students to have access to comprehensive climate education, one that centers traditional ecologies, justice, critical consciousness, social-emotional learning, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) and action.

We must go beyond simple awareness of the climate crisis to understanding its social-political root causes and solutions. We owe it to the next generation to provide them with the tools and knowledge needed to tackle the climate crisis and systemic oppression. Only then, can we imagine and build a different world – and I sincerely hope that our future generations will be given the right to dream. Perhaps in 2075 – who knows what the world will be!

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Africa contributes a measly 3% of global carbon emissions, yet no continent is feeling the heat – literally – as much. Rising temperatures are killing our livestock, and coastal areas face the brunt of rising sea levels. It’s a harsh reality brought on by a world that has prioritized convenience over sustainability.

Growing up in Nigeria, environmental consciousness wasn’t a class; it was a lifestyle. It wasn’t some abstract concept – it was turning our backyard farm into a living example of sustainability. We didn’t need to go to the market for fruits or vegetables; we cultivated them ourselves. We didn’t just burn weeds; we learned to compost them. This wasn’t unique to my family – it was a cultural wellspring, a deep understanding that protecting the environment benefits us all. At school, our curriculum had a lot of home economics and understanding cultural nuances. Every Friday, we would learn about the farmland and would till the ground of our school and clear the bushes to turn them into compost, harvest them, and take them to the school kitchen.

Then, I moved to Rwanda for university, one of the countries with the highest forest-land ratio on the continent. Here, too, the environment is a national priority. Every last Saturday of the month, the whole country comes out to clean the environment between 08:00 and 11:00. The strong community involvement in environmental cleanup reinforces my desire to be conscious of the health of my surrounding environment. 

My experience proves that our climate change education already exists, and more than that, it’s embedded in the culture. And so I realized that the problem wasn’t with African education. It was with climate education elsewhere. The solution isn’t forcing Africa to change. It’s about the rest of the world catching up. 

The developed world, the biggest polluters, needs to take responsibility for the mess they helped create; rising temperatures affecting food availability and prices are a direct consequence of their actions. Climate justice isn’t just about helping vulnerable countries adapt to a changing climate; it’s about addressing the root causes that push people towards environmental degradation simply to survive.  

Everything is interconnected. The planet is a complex system where every variable affects another. Rising temperatures disrupt agricultural production, pushing food prices up. This is why Africa has 65% of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land, yet insufficient to feed its inhabitants. My father’s backyard poultry has suffered damage as some chickens have died recently due to rising temperatures. This creates a vicious cycle for people already struggling to put food on the table. As the saying goes, you can’t force a hungry or angry man to care about their environment, as they’re much more likely to satisfy their hunger than protect a tree or the wildlife around them. This is global warming at a granular level. That’s why social safety nets are crucial. We need to give people the ability to focus on the future, not just survive the day. I am studying planetary health and think that the global government and entities like the UN have a role in ensuring that justice is served. 

My experience in Nigeria wasn’t some anomaly. It was a model – one the world could learn from. In my home country, we understood the importance of traditional cultural practices – practices like composting chicken manure, a technique I learned from a young age, many of which are for the benefit of the environment. This knowledge, passed down through generations, needs to be celebrated and incorporated into curriculums around the world, as the new report by the GEM Report and MECCE Project, Learning to Act for People and Planet makes clear. I support the youth petition they are coordinating on this. Education should be influenced and should add to what already exists culturally. 

Perhaps what developing countries can learn from us is how we have been able to integrate nature close to us. Nothing beats stepping barefoot into nature and feeling connected with Mother Earth. In Rwanda, where I now live, most people have some knowledge about farming. Meanwhile, on my first visit to the United States, I was amazed to see that people have to buy soil to plant anything. This disconnect from nature discourages appreciation for nature and fuels a cycle of destruction. 

This isn’t just about Africa. It’s about our planet’s future. We all share this Earth, and a sustainable future requires a united effort. Let’s learn from each other, in-and-outside school, and build a world where environmental consciousness isn’t a privilege, but a common thread that binds us all.

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I vividly recall being in the 6th grade, spending weeks meticulously cutting out used cereal boxes to build my very own shack in the simulated city of El Hopa – a land of hopes and dreams. We were embodying the role of villagers from a rural area, faced with increasing agricultural hardship due to unpredictable climates and attracted by the promise of moving to the big city. As I placed my little shack, a labour of love, I felt connected to my new city. And with it came apprehensions and fears for my future. My fears were justified as a simulated “typhoon” ripped through El Hopa, swept away my shack – and along with it – my hopes and dreams for the future. 

Fast forward to high school, with the painful memory of my carefully-built shack being swept away still etched deep in my mind, I raised my hand in the back of Psychology class, “How does our identity in social groups affect climate change?” With the rise of polarisation in society, I realised that climate change – despite being an inherently science-based issue – has become a point of contention.

I learned that day in class, it’s not all doom and gloom. When we cooperate over common goals that transcend our individual and group interests, we set aside our differences and form a shared sense of identity. The key to globally-coordinated action, therefore, is to reframe climate change as a shared superordinate goal, irrespective of one’s geography, political affiliations, or socioeconomic status.

And that’s when it all started to make sense – El Hopa mirrored this very concept! My devastation at the destruction of my “home” brought about a sense of connectedness – not just to my peers, but to the lived realities of those who face the real and devastating effects of climate change each and every day. Given the transboundary nature of climate change, those who cause the most pollution are too far removed from the consequences of their actions. El Hopa brought the alarming climate science to life – making abstract climate phenomena deeply personal and tangible. The experience gave us a unique window to empathise with the harsh realities of people in the Philippines, where typhoons have intensified due to climate change, and the resilient people of Tuvalu, who are adapting to preserve their disappearing island nation. Living thousands of miles away, I came closer to understanding the existential climate threat faced by the 3.6 billion people in areas highly susceptible to climate change.

A shift in climate education is fundamentally needed to develop our understanding of the scientific consensus surrounding climate change and to build a socio-emotional narrative necessary to promote climate action. I had the privilege of attending a school that had a holistic emphasis on service alongside academics – and climate education has had a profound influence on my advocacy.

Once we strengthen the human-to-human connection, we are more united in achieving a common goal despite speaking different languages, holding different ideologies, or hailing from different places. That shared humanity should be encouraged through climate education but needs to go a step further by advocating for individual climate action. At school, students engaged in climate fundraisers and awareness raising; however, there was limited personal sacrifice. I noticed pushback from the student population towards environmentally positive initiatives such as ‘Veggie Wednesdays’ and restrictions on food deliveries. In contrast, when Singapore was confronted with haze pollution – caused by slash-and-burn practices across regional palm oil plantations – we experienced the health effects firsthand and banded together to take action. The difficulties we encountered highlighted the interconnectedness of environmental issues: We became more aware of the dire situation faced by native orangutans, left with nowhere to flee as their habitats were engulfed by the encroaching fires and the plight of nearby villagers, who suffered the worst of its effects.

Change often starts from the individual and ripples outwards in the community. Consequently, schools need to be a driving force for climate action in their own backyard. Given the formative role schools play in educating the adults of tomorrow, climate education needs to not only bring to life climate issues in other countries but also empower individual and collective action.

Climate education is not the endpoint. Rather, it should aim to build a climate-positive mentality that drives individuals to take action, within their own means, across all facets of life. Let me illustrate this with an issue close to home, Singapore: Despite being a leader in climate mitigation, there is unfortunately a rampant use of single-use plastics across food courts in Singapore. If climate education fosters a climate-conscious mentality, students might bring their reusable cups the next time they order their favourite drink, thus spurring institutional change. Our shared calls for accountability and action – to corporations, elected officials, and world leaders – are made infinitely stronger when they have a concrete basis: change in our very own backyard.

Just as the El Hopa simulation allowed me to forge a profound connection with those affected by the harshest effects of climate migration, climate education could be the crucial link between awareness, empathy, and action. By feeling the struggles of our companions near and far, we cultivate a climate mindset that not only comprises a deeper understanding of climate science but also underpins our collective resolve to take action. The GEM Youth Petition on Climate Education embodies this very spirit, inviting global leaders to prioritise holistic climate education and act now to ensure that the communities most vulnerable to climate change are not left behind. I urge you to add your name. 

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According to a survey of 16- to 25-year-olds in Canada, 60% believed that the formal education system should focus more on the social-emotional dimensions of climate change. Respondents indicated that they would also prefer more climate change content in classes, mental health support, reassurance, positive and hopeful messaging, and teaching about the urgency of climate risks. 

Youth voices on climate action will be front and center at a high-level breakfast briefing hosted by the GEM Report and partners during this week’s High-Level Political Forum taking place at UN Headquarters in New York during which global progress towards SDG 13 is under review. Angela Busheska, a young engineer from North Macedonia named as one of Forbes 30 under 30 on youth action and holding governments to account for their climate commitments will also be in attendance. Follow the event live from 8.15 AM New York time today on the GEM Report’s LinkedIn page.

Systematic reviews have concluded that the political dimensions of climate change are often missing in formal education. Climate change is primarily taught in science subjects. An analysis of 55 articles written between 2017 and 2020 highlighted that justice-driven climate change education was difficult to implement in formal education due to current structures, curriculum standardization and accountability mechanisms. Climate justice was often taught in non-formal settings, with student and teacher activists learning about justice dimensions from each other and acting as educators for their communities.

Although young activists and advocates in the Global North and the Global South had been undertaking actions for climate justice for years without recognition and media coverage, the Fridays for Future movement, spearheaded by Greta Thunberg in 2018, is often credited with expanding local and national youth engagement and awareness efforts of climate change to a global scale. Discussions with school strikers for climate action show that students are learning from their participation in the strikes, complementing their often insufficient climate change education in schools. In turn, they are also becoming climate change educators. Students are teaching themselves the knowledge that they need to engage with climate change issues outside of classrooms, such as dealing with regulations, negotiating with police, organizing a web presence and developing policy demands by improving their competencies in political engagement. They also teach their teachers how to reducing the school footprint. 

Youth activists have supported climate science as new ambassadors and communicators for scientific consensus and climate adaptation and mitigation. An analysis of 50 youth-led climate initiatives, of which 30 were initiated by youth, found that most were aiming to exert political pressure. The skills focus in these initiatives were advocacy and communications, literacy and leadership related to climate change. 

Students have also highlighted inadequacies in school textbooks. In Berlin, students analysed actions discussed in geography, chemistry and biology textbooks aimed at 11- to 18-year-olds in Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. High-impact solutions (e.g. living car-free) received little or no mention while low-impact solutions (e.g. recycling) were discussed more extensively. Some of the proposed solutions had not been updated for 25 years, making textbook reform urgent. 

A lack of national and global efforts on climate change has been portrayed as a human rights violation. By the end of 2022, 2,180 climate change cases had been filed, of which 1,522 were in the United States. Litigation by youth has been a sign of increasing political involvement in climate action, although cases tend to be dismissed early. Analysis of 23 cases in 14 countries shows that where a first decision was rendered, only 3 cases were heard on their legal merits: in Colombia (on the government’s failure to reduce deforestation in the Amazon), Germany and Norway. In the US state of Montana, a court ruled in favour of young plaintiffs who alleged that the state violated their right to a clean and healthy environment by allowing fossil fuel development without considering its climate consequences. Youth litigation also has a transnational dimension, where young people from the Global South call out climate injustice for which the Global North is largely responsible. However, these international cases have been dismissed in most contexts. 

At the higher education level, climate activism also focuses on university policies and approaches. Fossil fuel divestment movements at universities and colleges are often led by students. In the United States, students and others have pushed 141 higher education institutions to divest their endowments from industries producing fossil fuels since 2012. Analysis of 220 Canadian universities and colleges found 38 active divestment campaigns, of which 31 were initiated by students, with 6 institutions then committing to varying degrees of divestment (Maina et al., 2020). There are also growing calls by scientists and researchers for universities to facilitat further academic advocacy and activism in climate and ecological emergencies, shifting the focus from primarily publications onto public actions, and providing space for academics to engage in such efforts. 

University students have advocated for climate inclusion within their curriculum, for instance in health and architecture education. Students from 2,817 medical schools in 112 countries reported that climate change is taught in less than 15% of medical schools worldwide. Students led climate action–related activities in another 12% of medical schools. Medical students founded the Planetary Health Report Card to inspire medical schools to engage with the subject. Since 2019, more than 60 medical schools in Canada, Ireland, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States participated in the report card, catalysing the inclusion of integrated curricula in many of these institutions. Climate change has also received attention in architectural education. Over 4,000 architects in 18 countries declared a biodiversity and climate emergency, with over 2,500 architecture students and teachers signing a declaration calling for curriculum change in architectural education. A review of 71 studies on the integration of sustainability education into architecture highlights the need to shift from educator-centred teaching to student-centred learning methods with collaborative, reflective and deep learning strategies.

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In 2019, together with my brother Ayush Chopra, we founded SDGs for Children, a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). I first learned about the goals when I was 9 years old. Inspired by my school exhibition’s message to spread knowledge about the agenda, we started creating short YouTube videos on each of the 17 SDGs to address social issues such as girls’ education, the climate crisis, and bullying. Our mission is to educate and empower children to act towards a more sustainable and equitable world.  

My understanding of SDGs and a belief that unless you know them, you can’t achieve them, inspired me to form the Twitter community SDGs for Children in 2016. Since then, our platform has impacted millions of educators, parents and students across the globe to connect, create and collaborate towards sustainability. Learning to act for people and planet, published by the GEM Report and the MECCE project, highlights a pressing issue: formal education systems are failing to adequately prepare children to understand and address climate change. The report reminds us of the need for action-oriented learning, as well as a stronger focus on justice issues. These findings resonate strongly with our experiences and the initiatives we have pursued at SDGs for Children. 

Empowering youth through climate education 

Through SDGs for Children, we have been addressing these gaps by creating and sharing educational resources that focus on the social-emotional dimensions of climate change. One of our key projects is the One minute with SDGs series, where we share bite-sized information on each SDG, including climate change, making learning accessible and engaging. Student contributions are featured on the SDGs for Children website and social media, allowing participants to share their messages with a global audience. We also run interactive workshops in schools where we talk about the importance of the SDGs and how students may help achieve them. The purpose of these sessions is to provide positive and hopeful messaging while emphasizing the urgency of climate risks. This approach is in line with the report’s conclusions, which show that children prefer more climate content in classes and need more mental health resources to deal with climate anxiety​​. 

The Goals Project brings together young people from around the world to work collaboratively on projects related to the SDGs. I have been contributing to the Goals Project as one of the Student Ambassadors for the last three years. This project aligns with the report’s emphasis on interdisciplinary learning and community engagement. Participants from different countries come together to share ideas, develop solutions and implement projects that address various SDGs, including on climate. The Goals Project not only helps create a global community but also helps participants understand how global issues are connected and why working together is important.  

The lack of integration of climate justice in formal education is one of the major issues mentioned in the report. Because of strict curriculum structures and standardization, the political and justice-related aspects of climate change are often neglected. We tried to include these topics in our projects and initiatives at SDGs For Children. For example, through our Human rights and climate justice project, we engage with students and educators, learning about justice dimensions together and acting as educators for our communities​​. By doing so, we ensure that students are not only aware of the environmental impacts of climate change but also understand the broader implications on society, including issues of equity and justice. The GEM Report/MECCE publication also advocates for education systems to incorporate these essential components into curricula, emphasizing the need to address climate change’s socio-economic and political implications.

Since there isn’t a formal book or curriculum on the SDGs in Canadian schools, my brother and I have authored books, such as Shaping a fairer world with human rights and SDGs, Save our planet and Know your rights OR Have no rights, that make the goals simple for children and educators.  

I also run the podcast Shaping a fairer world – Bytes with Ananya. The podcast is an attempt to connect educators, students and parents and to share their voices and unheard stories across the globe. I believe that nothing can stand in the way of the power of voices calling for change. 

Community engagement and advocacy 

SDGs for Children has also been instrumental in promoting advocacy and community engagement. The GEM Report/MECCE project publication highlights the importance of youth as ambassadors and communicators for climate science. One notable initiative is World Children Conference #WC2020, where we brought together young children to discuss global issues and share their innovative solutions. It was the collaborative effort of SDG Choupal, UN-Habitat and SDGs for Children. The conference was attended by over 1,600 participants from over 30 countries. Our efforts align with the report’s recommendation that education should motivate climate action and support the development of transformative plans through green upskilling and climate-focused research​​. 

The impact of global youth movements, such as Fridays for Future, is pivotal in expanding local and global youth engagement in climate change. Similarly, our work with SDGs for Children has contributed to a broader movement, connecting with like-minded youth organizations globally like TeachSDGs and The Road to Rights. By sharing our journey and successes on social media platforms, we inspire and collaborate with other young activists, amplifying our collective voice for climate justice​​. 

The GEM Report/MECCE project paper demonstrates how youth movements have significantly raised public awareness about climate change and pushed for more aggressive climate policies. Our organization echoes this sentiment, working to amplify the voices of young people and advocating for change at local, national, and global levels. 

Conclusion 

My journey with SDGs for Children reflects the need to address the inadequacies in formal education. Integrating justice-driven learning and engaging with our communities, we work to create a sustainable and equitable future. We call upon governments, educators and fellow youth to join us in prioritizing climate change education and empowering the next generation of global citizens. 

For more insights into our work and ongoing projects, follow me on X (Twitter) @sdgsforchildren, and @wonderananya. Together, we can make a significant impact in the fight against climate change. 

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Climate change is a defining challenge of our time. The urgency to address climate change has never been more apparent: 2023 was on course to be the hottest year on record. The consequences of rising temperatures are profound.  

The Paris Agreement has been instrumental in increasing climate mitigation ambitions internationally: as of September 2023, 105 countries had pledged a net-zero target, with 90 aiming to reach this target by 2050. The rapid emergence of a new clean energy economy has led the International Energy Agency to conclude in its updated Net Zero Roadmap that a pathway to limiting global warming to 1.5 °C is difficult – but remains open. Investment in clean energy has risen by 40% since 2020. In 2020, of all cars sold, 1 in 25 was electric but this ratio was 1 in 5 by 2023, and more than USD 1 billion a day is being spent on solar deployment.

Strengthening initial education systems, providing upskilling and reskilling opportunities for adults over the course of their lives and ensuring that skills are effectively mobilized is critical to harness both the public support that is needed to take adequate action and the human capital that can effectively power the green transition.  

However, so far, the speed of environmental and digital transformations is outpacing the rate of change in our education and skills policies and their capacity to respond to emerging needs in society and labour markets. A key to building resilience in the face of environmental challenges and technological transformations is to empower young people with the skills they need to exert positive change in their societies both in the present and in the future. But skills alone do not guarantee meaningful action. Attitudes and dispositions, which are in large part shaped through education and training, play a crucial role in motivating individuals to use their skills for environmental sustainability.  

Recent results published in the Skills Outlook 2023 on Skills for a Resilient Green and Digital Transition show that, for example, as many as 78% of 15-year-old students in OECD countries achieved science proficiency level 2 or above. This means that they could, at the minimum, draw on everyday knowledge and basic procedural knowledge to identify an appropriate scientific explanation, interpret data, and identify the question being addressed in a simple experimental design, use basic or everyday scientific knowledge to identify a valid conclusion from a simple data set.  

However, only 33% of students had foundational levels of environmental sustainability competence, meaning they combined this level of achievement in science with taking part in concrete pro-environmental actions (such as engaging in energy saving), caring about the environment or being aware of climate change. This means that on average almost 45% of students had the ‘skill’ but not necessarily the ‘will’ component of environmental sustainability competence.  

Furthermore, large disparities exist in the extent to which education systems and societies equip children with environmental sustainability competence: only 21% of socio-economically disadvantaged youths, but 46% of their more advantaged peers, had mastered both the foundation skills and mindsets they will need to find employment in the new green economy and to act for environmental sustainability as consumers.  

International large-scale assessments of school-aged children are critical in providing the knowledge base needed to measure progress towards empowering young people with environmental sustainability competence. The science assessments administered to 15-year-old students participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and to 4th and 8th graders participating in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) contain questions aimed at gauging young people’s knowledge and skills of environmentally relevant phenomena.  

Results from these assessments have been used to map young people’s knowledge and skills in environmental science topics and whether they are more or less proficient in solving environmental science problems than other science problems. Looking forward, in 2025, ‘Agency in the Anthropocene’ will be a key dimension of the PISA science assessment. The assessment is designed to map young people’s ability to explain the impact of human interactions with Earth’s systems; to make informed decisions to act based on the evaluation of diverse sources of evidence and the application of creative and systems thinking to regenerate and sustain the environment; and to demonstrate respect for diverse perspectives, and hope, in seeking solutions to socio-ecological crises. The International Vocational Education and Training (VET) Assessment will also feature environmental knowledge and skills as a cross-cutting priority. 

At the same time, given the key role played by emotional, attitudinal and behavioural dimensions of environmental sustainability competence, since 2006 the PISA student questionnaire has asked students about their attitudes towards environmental problems and climate change – such as how much they care about the environment, or how optimistic or pessimistic they feel about solving environmental problems. Given the evidence on the role of school-level socialisation in shaping the attitudinal dimensions of environmental sustainability in children, the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) collects information from participating school leaders and teachers about the initiatives they took related to environmental sustainability – such as organising differential waste collection, recycling and waste reduction and energy-saving – and engagement in activities organised at school pertaining to the environment. 

Compared to children born in the 1960s, those born at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 may experience twice as many wildfires and 6.8 times more heatwaves across their lifetimes. However, should countries be successful in limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, they will be able to reduce additional lifetime exposure to heatwaves by 45% and to wildfires by 10%. International large-scale assessments are an important tool to help us grasp how ready young people are to contribute to a greener tomorrow. 

*The piece reflects work that was conducted while Ottavia Brussino worked at the OECD. 

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By Sukie Yang and Kai Feng, doctoral students at the University of Pennsylvania and 2023 GEM Report fellow

Floods killed more than 800 people in Nigeria, Niger, and other nearby countries between June and October, 2022. The floods were deemed the “most devastating” in a decade by the people of Nigeria. Tragically, more than 1.3 million people had to relocate because of the floods, and over a million hectares of farmland were damaged. As people gather for the annual COP summit this week, it seems fitting to highlight the findings of our background paper prepared for the 2023 GEM Report on the impact that such climate related crises have on children’s education.

Climate change makes these crises happen more often. The World Weather Attribution Service found that climate change made the region’s rainy season in 2022 20% wetter than it would have been without climate change caused by humans. The study also says that because of climate change, shorter periods of intense rain in the Lower Niger Basin, which made the floods worse, are now about twice as likely to happen.

While countries in West Africa were dealing with deadly flooding earlier this year, the Sahel, a 5,900-kilometer-long strip of semi-arid land that runs across Africa just south of the Sahara, was in the middle of a food crisis caused by drought. The rainy season in that area was shorter and drier than usual in 2021. As crop yields dropped and food prices went up, food insecurity in a region that was already at risk got worse.

How does the worsening climate crisis affect the educational attainment of kids? We looked into this question by analyzing data from population-level surveys conducted in 10 African countries and 20-year climate data for the 2023 GEM Report.

Although our study did not directly examine the pathways through which exposure to climate hazards affects education, insights from previous literature shed light on potential mechanisms. Firstly, climate change can exert a direct impact on children’s education by influencing educational personnel and infrastructure. Secondly, climate change can lead to reduced family disposable income, either through crop damage and losses in agricultural income or diminished adult productivity and other earnings. Thirdly, health declines triggered by climate change, whether in utero, during early childhood, or throughout the school years, may pose threats to children’s educational attainment. Lastly, displacement or climate-induced migration resulting from acute climate disasters or chronic environmental degradation can present challenges for accessing education among relocated children. In the cohort of children in the ten-country sample we looked at, we found that children had been exposed to prolonged climate anomalies. Specifically, we calculated the cumulative exposure to extreme rainfall and heat from birth onward. Children who were born between 2000 and 2004, on average, have been exposed to more than 24 months (2 years) of anomalies in precipitation or temperature. Furthermore, the impact of climate change on children’s education is not universally distributed across the ten African countries. This variation is partially explained by the diverse climate conditions prevalent across the region. Guinea and Liberia seem to have had the most abnormally high rainfall over the past 20 years. Each country has had an average of 42 months of excessive rainfall, which is the most of any country (more than 3.5 years). In terms of abnormally high temperatures, eight of the ten countries in our analytic sample, including Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, Mali, and Rwanda, have had them for more than 40 months (cumulatively more than 3 years).

These results also consistently showed that cumulative exposure to climate anomalies has negative impacts on children’s primary education. Factors such as the country and household context are undoubtedly crucial, but equally significant is the timing of a child’s exposure to these changes. This study reveals that exposure to climate anomalies during early childhood has a more pronounced impact on children’s educational attainment. Even after taking into account individual, country, community, and household-level factors, each extra month of unusually high rainfall during early childhood (the first five years of life) is linked to a 0.8% lower chance of completing primary school. This finding is important because it shows that the chance of completing primary school goes down by 2.4% for every additional three months (about one season) of exposure to an anomaly like this. In the same way, each additional three months of low rainfall (a proxy for drought) during early childhood is linked to a 10.3% drop.

Mothers’ education as an important mitigating factor

While exposure to climate anomalies is consistently related to a higher chance of primary school dropouts, the research also found that having a better-educated mother mitigated such adverse impacts.

Children born to mothers with a higher level of education can better adapt to the adverse effects of climate anomalies. The impact of climate change affects the children of lower-educated mothers the most, and as exposure to climate anomalies increases, the gap between the educational outcomes of children from low-educated mothers and those from highly educated mothers widens. Even in economically disadvantaged families, children born to more educated mothers have higher primary school completion rates than children with less educated mothers. Overall, one additional month of climate anomaly exposure decreases the odds of completing primary school by 6.0%. However, with better-educated mothers, the negative effect drops to 1.8%.

The devastating floods and droughts in Sub-Saharan Africa are not isolated events but rather part of a growing pattern of extreme weather occurrences due to climate change. As we have seen in this study, the impact of these climate anomalies on children’s education is substantial, with prolonged exposure leading to a higher likelihood of primary school dropouts. However, the research also offers hope, as it underscores the critical role of mothers’ education in mitigating these adverse effects.

Certainly, within the African context, various other factors at both household and country levels exert influence on children’s education, including economic hardships, transmissible disease, political unrest, and armed conflicts. Nevertheless, increasing studies have discovered the connections between climate anomalies and these well-established obstacles, leading to a more profound understanding of their intricate interactions. As scholars delve deeper into this evolving terrain, it opens new possibilities for comprehensive policy responses that confront the complexity of these challenges.

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A better understanding of, and a stronger response to, the impacts of climate change is essential — especially regarding young children. Research results and the related discourse arising out of the recent COP28 conference on climate change have expanded the evidence base for that conclusion.

Climate change is only one of the components of the ‘polycrisis’ now facing the world, i.e. the simultaneous occurrence of several catastrophic events – among others being COVID-19, accelerating environmental degradation, increasing economic and social disparities, more frequent conflicts, and greater population displacement.

This polycrisis is having many serious impacts on the world and its people, but of particular severity are the increased developmental and learning delays and losses of young children related to their mental and physical health, nutrition, protection, stimulation, and, overall, the responsive caregiving they are meant to receive. These losses can in turn result in poorer health and malnutrition, enhanced toxic stress, worse learning outcomes, inadequate social-emotional development, and, ultimately, greater exclusion and inequity.

The polycrisis is already dramatically re-shaping the world in which the children of today must function and is leading us to an ever more uncertain and unpredictable future into which these children will enter — and in which they will need to survive and thrive as adults.

COVID-19

As a result of COVID-19, many early childhood development programmes and preschools around the world were closed, especially those funded by family and community contributions, many not to re-open. Millions of young children were forced to discontinue their pre-primary education, many not to return. Because early childhood is such a sensitive period for a child’s holistic development, the development and learning losses resulting from COVID-19 have been especially significant and will likely have long-term effects on an individual’s future educational achievement and economic potential and productivity.

The impacts of these closures on young children were compounded by the fact that many of them live in families that were ill-prepared for, and also most affected by, the challenges arising from COVID-19 – not only a lack of play and learning materials and of access to remote pre-primary alternatives but also, more generally, greater poverty and food insecurity, less access to health services, and increased toxic stress in the home. In other words, those young children already vulnerable before the pandemic became more vulnerable after the pandemic.

Environmental degradation

Young children are least responsible for environmental degradation, but they bear the brunt of its development-related impacts – and have the fewest resources and the least capacity to address them. Children’s development is disrupted by many environmental challenges including indoor and outdoor air pollution, exposure to harmful toxins such as mercury and lead, and the lack of clean and protective play and recreational spaces. In particular, young children’s exposure to pollution results in a higher risk of disease and developmental delays that can reduce an individual’s long-term cognitive, socio-emotional, and physical potential.

Climate change

About a billion children, or nearly half of the world’s children, live in countries at high risk of severe climate-related events (e.g., floods, droughts, wildfires, hurricanes/typhoons/cyclones, and rising sea levels) and suffer from the impacts of climate change including increased toxic stress, greater poverty and food insecurity, and large-scale population displacement.

Asia and the Pacific, where we live and work, is especially susceptible to climate change:

• Over 40% of the people living in areas of high or extremely high drought severity are in Asia.
• More than half a billion children live in extremely high flood occurrence zones; the vast majority of them live in Asia.
• By 2050 most the world’s urban population will be found in Asia where climate change effects are amplified due to faster warming; in addition, many mega-cities in Asia are threatened by sea level rise.
• Changes to the ocean, including warming, ocean acidification, reduced oxygen levels, and sea level rise, affect both ocean ecosystems and the people that rely on them – most notably those in the Pacific.

The impacts of the polycrisis are reversing the gains of the SDGs and are also widening conditions of inequality among young children, their families, and their communities. Young children everywhere face increased risks to their well-being and development and their ability (and their right) to thrive and live in dignity.

The (lack of) response

The problem is that many educators, including those focused on early childhood development, ignore or, at most, pay lip service to these crises. They seem unwilling or unable to envision what the world may be like 10-20-30 years from now and therefore cannot understand what needs to be done now in order to help children prepare for the world they will find in the future. They reform systems, revise curricula, and teach children as if tomorrow’s world will be no different from today’s.

There is, in fact, much talk about the “transformation” of education, but in terms of climate change, for example, this often means only tweaking the curriculum by adding “environment” to the timetable, training teachers on what climate change is, making schools “greener”, and helping children follow more sustainable lifestyles and become more conservation-minded as “lovers of nature, and “stewards of the planet” – which are all important, but are not enough.

In other words, there is virtually no discussion of what happens if these greener schools and more sustainable lifestyles are ultimately unable to stop progression towards the temperature “tipping point”. As a result, there is also virtually no discussion of how to develop in children the knowledge and skills (especially social-emotional skills) they will need in the future to mitigate, adapt to, and be resilient amid the challenges they will face.

International conferences and declarations on education, institutional strategy revisions, and education reform frameworks often pay little attention to these crises — beyond, perhaps, one plenary presentation at a conference, one paragraph in a new policy, or one bullet point in a reform document. Even when there might be some attention paid to “children” (or, more often, “youth”) in any climate change discourse, younger children, who are most vulnerable to climate change and bear the heaviest burden of its impacts, are mostly ignored. And even if the importance of young children in reacting to climate change – and in helping to build community and societal resilience to its impacts – is recognised, early childhood development programmes and policies remain woefully underfinanced across the world.

We do understand better the impacts of the polycrisis on young children and their families, now and in the future, and are now beginning to understand possible responses to these impacts. But the discourse around young children and the polycrisis is still woefully limited. It is therefore essential to advocate — in the kinds of conferences, declaration, and documents mentioned above — for a much stronger focus on the polycrisis and its impacts on children and on ways in which education and early childhood development systems must respond in order to help nurture children who can face the challenges their future will bring.

Read more

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A new set of 30 country profiles on climate change communication and education (CCE) was launched today marking the beginning of the COP28 taking place in Dubai. Bringing the total count of country profiles to 80, they allow us to explore greening education approaches across all world regions and income levels and covering 75% of the global population. How are learners being taught and informed about climate change around the world?

The drive to compile these profiles was a response to the need for better data on CCE progress. They resulted from an ongoing partnership between the GEM Report and the Monitoring and Evaluating Climate Communication and Education (MECCE) Project, hosted by the Sustainability and Education Policy Network (SEPN) and are available on the Profiles Enhancing Education Reviews (PEER) website of the GEM Report and the MECCE Project website.

They cover four sections describing climate change contexts (relevant government agencies, laws, policies, and plans, terminology and budget); climate change education (policy, curriculum, teacher education and assessment) in primary and secondary education; higher education; teacher education; technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and adult education; climate change communication (public awareness, public access to education, public participation); and CCE monitoring.

They provide a comparative perspective of countries’ progress in relation to Article 6 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Article 12 of the Paris Agreement, through ‘Action for Climate Empowerment’ (ACE); and on SDG Target 4.7 on education for sustainable development. More than 750 experts and national focal points for Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) were invited to review the information collected.

Several measures were then developed to identify global trends from across countries’ policies and practices (Figure 1). By comparing like for like, they enable countries to learn from peers and foster policy dialogue. They can also support global target-setting and benchmarking in diverse contexts – particularly when used in combination with global indicators, regional and national surveys and polls, and qualitative information. A new brochure, titled Climate Change Communication and Education Country Profiles: Approaches to Greening Education Around the World, summarizes these trends and highlights some particular country approaches.

Figure 1. Countries have adopted a variety of CCE laws and policies
Percentage of education systems with specific CCE-related laws and policies

Source: PEER profiles.  

Climate change education 

A vast majority (87%) of countries have laws, policies or plans supporting the integration of climate change in primary and secondary education curricula, something that the GEM Report will be starting to formally monitor in a new global greening education indicator from next year.  For example, in Chile, climate change is addressed in pre-primary, primary and secondary education as part of a broader National Environmental Education Strategy. In Ethiopia, environment and climate change is covered as a cross-cutting issue in all study subjects for grades 1 to 12. In Indonesia, climate change was mainstreamed into the school curriculum in 2011, while in Italy, Law 92/2019 introduced the transversal teaching of civics (which covers climate change) in the first and second cycles of education.  

Meanwhile, in the United Arab Emirates, a cross-curriculum framework as part of a Greening Education Hub reform that “fosters a seamless, cross-curricular approach, intertwining literature, science, physics, and social sciences. By integrating knowledge, skills, and values, the framework aims to instil behavioural change in students, preparing them to inherit and preserve the world” was announced this week at the opening of the COP28 Summit. 

The new country profiles also show that initiatives encouraging social, emotional and experiential learning are emerging. Some of the examples featured in our brochure show where the social and emotional approach is prioritised, including in Iceland with Astrid, a digital platform which aims to reach students early to inspire action and combat climate anxiety with scientific evidence. Cabo Verde and Ecuador also apply both cognitive and action learning dimensions in their approaches.

Emphasis on encouraging learners to learn by their actions is seen in Ghana’s National Pre-Tertiary Education Curriculum Framework and Morocco’s ‘One Student, One Tree, One School, One Forest’ project that has engaged an estimated 6 million students to plant seeds and cuttings in school grounds and surroundings. In Qatar, schools were encouraged to submit research projects on environmental issues in a competition. Extracurricular activities also encourage climate action in countries such as Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon, Namibia, Côte d’Ivoire, and El Salvador. Often these take place with the support of the community as in Saint Lucia and Cameroon. 

The importance of green and sustainable schools is also growing. One example is the Eco-Schools programme, now implemented in more than 43,000 schools globally, but also at the national level as in Kenya, Indonesia, India, Israel, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.  

Teachers’ role in climate change education is emphasized in most of the 80 countries.  Modules and resources on CCE are available to teachers as in Thailand and Viet Nam. In El Salvador, the 2019 National Teacher Training Plan aims to elevate education standards, with a particular focus on climate change. In New Zealand, several resources for teachers are available online, including the Science Learning Hub, Pūtātara, and Rangi, incorporating Māori principles. More structured training such as professional development and pre-service training for teachers is also available in some countries (e.g. in Cambodia, Israel, Scotland, and Uruguay), but it is less common. 

Climate change training at the tertiary level and capacity building, particularly in TVET, are also becoming increasingly important as in Italy, Fiji, Sweden, and Cuba. In Cuba, for example, the Ministry of Agriculture’s Agrarian Network on Climate Change conducts research and provides training on climate adaptation and mitigation in the agricultural sector.  

Climate change communication 

Countries often turn to public awareness campaigns to improve climate-responsible behaviour. In Bolivia, national campaigns such as ‘Your Plate, Your Planet’ aim to promote sustainable food choices. In India, a custom built, 16-coach train called the Science Express Climate Action Special acts as a mobile climate change science exhibition. The train has travelled more than 160,000 kilometres and reached more than 20 million people. Malta’s national public awareness campaign in social media #ClimateON aimed to shift its citizens’ habits towards living in a low-carbon society 

Yet despite progress, more remains to be done. For starters, only 38% of the 80 countries have a national law, policy and strategy specifically focused on climate change education. In addition, budget allocations for CCE are scarce. Only a few countries, such as Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Italy, Portugal and Zambia have publicly available CCE budgets. In Cabo Verde, for example, the anticipated expenses for implementing a climate education plan from 2022 to 2028, are estimated at approximately US$1.5 million. In the United Arab Emirates, the first dedicated fund on climate change education, the Greening Education Partnership Multi Partner Trust Fund, will be established at COP28 in 2023 to mobilize resources. 

Another area needing attention is that, while countries generally have ambitious plans for monitoring, evaluation and reporting on CCE, only a few collect data in this area, including Lebanon, Nauru and Portugal. The Greening Education Partnership, a global initiative launched by UNESCO, is working with member states to monitor their progress in the four key pillars of transformative education: greening schools; greening curriculum; greening teacher training; and education systems’ capacities and greening communities. In this respect, the Sustainable Development Goal 4 High-Level Steering Committee requested the development of a benchmark indicator on the extent to which national curricula cover climate change education. 

As countries follow different paths and approaches to achieve their goals, the country profiles enrich the perspectives of education planners and decision-makers on this issue. We hope you find them of use.  

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Each year the world generates over two billion tonnes of waste. Trash clogs our oceans, fills our streets and litters huge areas of the planet. Waste and over consumption are both contributors to the climate crisis. If we continue to live the way we do now, the equivalent of almost three planets would be needed by 2050 to provide the natural resources.

To tackle this global problem through education, UNESCO, with support from the Government of Japan, launched the global campaign Trash Hack on the occasion of World Cleanup Day 2020. Since then, thousands of young people have joined the campaign.

Trash Hacks are small steps everyone can make to bring about bigger, lasting changes in waste reduction. The campaign aims to encourage young people to take action to promote sustainable development, reflect on their actions, and share their learnings. 

The campaign is based upon the insight that young people across the world are already taking steps to combat waste and consume less. Trash Hack provides them with a peer-to-peer learning opportunity online, to allow them to work across borders and take concrete actions for sustainable development.

In the News section you will find articles with tips from young leaders around the world to live in a more sustainable way.

Read Ivan’s guide from Ukraine to manage your digital waste, Olarip’s blog from Tanzania on mapping activities and “plogging”, and Christina’s tips on how to incorporate environmental awareness into schools through volunteering activities.

Furthermore, learn more on Mais’s advice from Syria on how to reduce plastic bottles consumption and Sarah’s explanation from Indonesia on how to make waste management at home.

Finally, discover the last article by all bloggers to start trash hacking your life and watch their inspirational video.

To support school communities and in particular teachers to engage their students in Trash Hacking, UNESCO’s Section of Education for Sustainable Development and the UNESCO Associated Schools Network (ASPnet) developed a practical guide: Trash Hack: Action Learning for Sustainable Development in English, French and Spanish. The guide was presented at a webinar in January and has been used by thousands of students and teachers around the world to Trash Hack their classrooms, schools and communities.

Schools involved in the campaign came together during a celebration webinar with inspiring examples by young guests from all over the world last month. This online event offered them the occasion to celebrate their Trash Hacks, share some good practice examples and encourage others to act. 

As part of the Campaign, ASPnet and the Foundation for Environmental Education partnered to make a global call for action and to invite all their members to engage in learning about trash, waste management and, more widely, sustainable development.

Furthermore, UNESCO took some Trash Hack ideas forward to the World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development, held in May.

During the first day, Pandhita Rajwa Waradhana, a 16-year-old student from Indonesia, emphasized the importance of education for changing unsustainable practices.  ‘The earth is crying for help from us humans […]. Bad behaviours have been going from generation to generation. […] We have to change and apply new lifestyles and education must take big roles in changing it.’  Watch her full speech and listen to the song created by the school for a better future for our planet.

UNESCO is implementing the Trash Hack campaign in each region of the world. Look out for the launch of the Trash Hack campaign with the IberoMAB youth leaders in Uruguay on World Environment Day 2021.

Learn more and take part: https://www.trashhack.org/

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