Teaching Green and Building Resilience: Behind the scenes

"Education for Sustainable Development allows every human being to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values necessary to shape a sustainable future.” UNESCO, 2014

Over the summer, I was fortunate to participate in the 2024 SUSI on "U.S. Economics and Sustainable Development", under the auspices of the US State Department. During the program, we collaborated with other esteemed participants to create a podcast on a topic directly related to our studies.

The background and expertise of our working group (i.e. economics of education, transformative education, environmental economics, international affairs) led us to research Climate Change Education, and after four weeks of work, our efforts came to fruition.

The podcast “Teaching Green and Building Resilience” is about the intersection of climate change and education, as well as how integrating climate resilience into curricula and advocating for policies that mitigate climate change can affect students and educational institutions.

Despite being cognizant of the nuances of ESD, this was the first time I researched Climate Change education, and thus, I am thankful to my colleagues for broadening my horizons. I want to extend a big thank you to: Veríssimo Santos , Shagufta Shabbar , Shashika Guruge and Nemanja Vuksanovic , as well as Katie Lazdowski and Jesse Eisenheim of the Institute for Training and Development for their guidance and support.

Once the podcast production was completed, we had the opportunity to receive a guided visit tour to Amherst College , where we saw first-hand a series of small-to-large scale initiatives of their Climate Action Plan across the campus. After that, I took some time to better organize my thoughts, and today, I present you with an extended version of my contribution to this fascinating project.

#SUSI #ExchangeOurWorld #ECAatState #ITDAmherst #AUE #CSGS #DubaiCOP28 #CLimateChangeEducation #ESD #educationforsustainabledevelopment #climatechange #AUE #CSGS

What is the connection between Green Education and Climate Change Education, and what do we need the latter for?

"ESD is essential for the achievement of a sustainable society and is therefore desirable at all levels of formal education and training, as well as in non-formal and informal learning."?Council of the European Union, 2010

The concept of Green Education, a longstanding idea, was significantly enhanced, if not replaced, by the more comprehensive concept of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) following the 1992 Rio Summit.

Currently, ESD is closely related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of Goals introduced by the UN in 2015. The SDGs address a wide range of issues affecting humanity and the planet, including poverty, equality, education, and the environment.

Climate change is just one aspect of this matrix, but it is closely interconnected to all the challenges that our societies are facing. It is thus evident that Climate Change Education (CCE) is part of the ESD process; in the same way, climate change is one of the factors contributing to achieving sustainable development.

However, Given the severe impacts of climate change on extreme weather events, food security, public health, and more, there is an urgent need to prioritize Climate Change Education (CCE) among top ESD initiatives.

As a result, Climate action has been identified as one of the?key thematic priorities of?“ESD for 2030”, the Education for Sustainable Development’s global framework for the next six years. ?This initiative is set to significantly impact global efforts towards climate change education (details here).

Since Climate Change affects the whole globe, what are the world-wide institutions steering the effort toward adopting Climate Change Education?

Since 2010, UNESCO has been leading the so-called “Climate change education for sustainable development: the UNESCO climate change initiative”.

At the time, climate change had not yet acquired the “viral” element it now holds, but governments and the international community had long since recognized the importance of fighting climate change to society. Scientific knowledge and top-down action alone were already deemed inadequate to face the consequences of climate change.

UNESCO took it upon itself to change the perception around the concept of climate action, promoting the motto “Changing minds, not climate.” In particular, UNESCO proposes the adoption of an educational approach that will help youth understand, address, mitigate, and adapt to the impacts of climate change and build a new generation of climate change-aware citizens. However, this innovative approach does not stop there, since UNESCO proposes a set of complementary activities that expand to non-formal education, the communication media, and culture.

Is the UNESCO alone in this?

Of course not. Climate Change Education is such a large project that one actor cannot implement it alone! Of paramount importance is the role of national governments, which are the key education policymakers and those who have the task of organizing and, of course, overseeing the educational system on the internal level.

In addition to regular UNESCO meetings, these topics are discussed in the UNFCCC COPs, which serve as the top-level decision-making forum for all Climate Change-related aspects.

The issue was also part of the agenda in the Dubai COP 28 when the countries agreed to the “Declaration on the Common Agenda for Education and Climate Change at COP28” which talks about the importance of:

• Rendering the current education systems more resilient
• Preparing today’s learners to become the pioneers of climate mitigation
• And, of course, the hot potato of Climate Change, which is the financial aspect of education.

The issue remains open and will certainly be revisited at the end of this year's Baku COP 29.

The UNESCO initiative results from the broader international community recognizing the importance of education and training in dealing with climate change. Indicatively, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement, and the associated Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) agenda urge governments to educate, empower, and involve all stakeholders and major groups in climate change policies and actions. (more information here)

What can we expect from the application of Climate Change Education?

Climate change education, specifically, is essential for helping people understand and address the impacts and causes of global warming. Of course, it goes beyond the scope of traditional education. CCE could be considered, and we are sorry to say this, as a set of “survival skills”.

But let us not be na?ve. CCE cannot be placed in a straitjacket. Many countries, or even regions within big countries, have different needs and priorities. This automatically gives us the first characteristic of CCE, which is nothing other than adaptability.

CCE also needs to be constantly updated, according not only to scientific knowledge, but also in tandem with political decisions.

Finally, CCE should also have a physical component. The time has come to stop teaching our students in energy-consuming or disaster-prone infrastructure and to make them acquainted with nature and the actual issues related to climate change.

When it comes to implementation, what are the most critical steps that the stakeholders should follow to adopt Climate Change Education policies?

Several approaches have been discussed, but we need to remind ourselves that sometimes simple solutions are the best solution.

As a good example, I wish to draw your attention to the strategy that the North American Association for Environmental Education proposes, which is actually bottom-up, a fact that makes it more interesting:

Step 1

Create overarching institutions with the authority to design and implement CCE strategies.

Step 2

Set the policies in motion by creating initiatives and bylaws as well as providing all the means needed to that end.

Step 3

Create inclusive learning environments and link CCE with other national priorities.

Step 4

Promote academic and professional skills via practical and hands-on experiences.

The above steps provide us with a general blueprint. Of course, each country should adopt its own CCE approach. The good thing is that we now have the practical and political tools for global cooperation on this matter.

For example, on an international level, the UNESCO Greening Education Partnership is structured around four key pillars of transformative education:

• Greening schools
• Greening curriculum
• Greening teacher training and education systems’ capacities
• Greening communities

Generally, ESD aims to enable students to approach complex, multilayered problems that are filled with uncertainty and risk in a more holistic manner. This means that they will be better equipped to make well-educated decisions to secure more sustainable outcomes.

What are the ESD highlights for the American University in the Emirates?

As Patrick Blessinger and Abhilasha Singh mention, “The American University in the Emirates instills environmental consciousness and social responsibility in its students through integrating sustainability in the core curriculum to extend theoretical knowledge to practical applications to prepare students to address real-world sustainability challenges” (source).

Following this direction, the College of Security and Global Studies has organized a series of academic activities to raise awareness and educate students for future challenges. Dubai COP28 sparked a lot of discussion both inside and outside the classroom, as students had the opportunity to participate in many side events of this summit (see here). The anticipation and outcomes of Dubai COP28 were presented and discussed in thematic academic events (see here and here). Finally, as part of curriculum improvement, a new course on Climate Change and Disasters has been added to the BA program in Security and Strategic Studies.