Event
Climate change and the right to education
Past warnings from scientific communities have become reality: the effects of climate change are no longer isolated emergencies but have become the new global norm. At the , the UN Secretary-General confirmed that education must be transformed globally to respond to a multitude of climate and environmental crises.
In the context of the 79th ESCAP Commission Session, UNESCO and UNU-IAS are jointly organizing a side event on ‘Climate change and the right to education’ on 17 May (15.30–17.00, GMT+7) to discuss how the right to education, including access to and continuity of quality education and lifelong learning, are threatened by the effects of climate change; and on the critical role of education in addressing these phenomena, which continue to increase alarmingly in intensity and frequency every year.
An important new initiative that emerged from TES is the Greening Education Partnership, an open and inclusive community of Member States, organizations, and institutions for promoting, implementing and enabling every learner to be climate ready. The Partnership aims to inspire strong, coordinated, and comprehensive action from countries to empower learners with the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to tackle climate change, and to promote sustainable development. The Partnership is focusing on four action areas which countries are encouraged to commit to achieve, whether in part or in totality, by 2030: 1) Greening Schools; 2) Greening Learning; 3) Greening Capacity and Readiness; and 4) Greening Communities.
Contributing to this Partnership, UNESCO initiative on the effects of climate change and displacement on the right to education was launched in 2020. UNESCO’s initiative aims to investigate climate displacement patterns and climate-induced barriers to education, with the objective to provide operational policy guidance for policy-makers that are helping to ensure the right to education in national and regional education systems affected by climate change. The policy recommendations inform the four action areas of the Greening Education Partnership.
