UN Climate Change News, 12 August 2024 – On this International Youth Day, we celebrate the transformative role of young people around the world in education and innovation to tackle the global climate crisis.
Across the globe, children and youth are calling for access to quality climate education. To respond to this challenge, the COP29 Presidency Youth Climate Champion, Leyla Hasanova, together with UN Climate Change and other partners, organized the inaugural COP29 Climate Change Summer Camp from 6 to 9 August 2024 at ADA University in Baku, Azerbaijan.
In a significant step towards empowering young educators and fostering climate action, the Climate Summer Camp gathered 75 early-career educators from primary and secondary schools across 35 countries worldwide, with the goal of discussing and learning how to incorporate climate change education into their teaching and learning processes more effectively and engagingly.
Hasanova said that "improving access to climate education is no small task, but it is critical to advancing our shared climate goals. Equipping teachers with the right resources is an essential step in the right direction.”
A UNESCO analysis of 100 national education curricula in 2021 showed that nearly half (47%) do not mention climate change. Only 23% of teachers felt able to properly address climate action in their classrooms, and 70% of young people surveyed could not explain climate change properly and expressed concerns about the way in which it is currently taught.
During a recent address to the UNESCO Executive Board in Paris, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell stressed the importance of education for climate action: “Education is key for the future. We need to train the next generation to address climate change in various fields. Climate education should be part of all school curricula. This is why the Greening Education Partnership is so important.”
The Climate Summer Camp aligned with the work of the Greening Education Partnership, introducing and applying new resources, such as the Greening Curriculum Guidance and the Green School Quality Standard – tools developed by the Partnership to support countries, schools and individual educators in implementing climate action through education.
The Camp’s programme covered critical concepts related to climate change, including its causes and impacts, as well as climate justice and climate anxiety. It addressed all aspects of climate change education – cognitive, socio-emotional and behavioural – ensuring a comprehensive understanding among participants.
The training sought to inspire and motivate young educators to apply their newfound knowledge and teaching methods upon returning to their schools. Fostering peer-to-peer exchange and networking was also emphasized, allowing educators to discuss challenges and share solutions, thereby building a global community of practice.
“I joined the Climate Summer Camp to learn more from educators around the world about how they implement climate change education,” said Gurpreet Kaur, an English Language primary school teacher from Malaysia.
“The Climate Change Camp has given me the knowledge and confidence to continue teaching and fighting climate change,” added Sam Baker, an Earth Science high school teacher from the United States.
The Climate Summer Camp was organized with the support and collaboration of the Ministries of Ecology and Natural Resources and Youth and Sports of the Republic of Azerbaijan, UNDP Azerbaijan, UN Climate Change, UNICEF Azerbaijan, ADA University, the Non-Aligned Movement Youth Organization, UNESCO, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), the Office for Climate Education (OCE), the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), and Teach For All.
Children and youth have the creativity, potential and capacity to make change happen – for themselves, for their communities, and for the rest of the world. UN Climate Change actively builds the capacity of children and youth as agents of change in climate action by supporting the work of the COP29 Presidency Youth Climate Champion and through various initiatives, such as the ACE Hub and the Youth4Capacity programme.
More about the COP29 Presidency Youth Climate Champion
