Greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the action, inaction, decisions and behaviour of people, which is why educating, empowering and engaging people to tackle climate change is vital.
And while we are seeing unprecedented engagement, mobilisation, and demand for climate action around the world right now, it remains critical that everyone, everywhere understands what’s causing climate change, as well as its environmental, economic and social impacts. As such, building greater capacity, knowledge, and skills to address the challenge and identify solutions are prerequisites to achieving the radical transformation that the Paris Agreement goals require.
Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) is the foundation for a low-emission, climate-resilient and just future, thanks to its six interconnected elements: climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation, public access to information, and international cooperation on these elements.
ACE is such a fundamental part of the fight against climate change that it was included in the original UNFCCC convention from 1992, and has its own article in the Paris Agreement. In the UNFCCC process, ACE is delivered through work programmes, the latest one being The Doha work programme, established in Doha in 2012, with a new programme expected to be adopted at COP 26 in Glasgow in November this year.
What does ACE look like in action?
Education
Incorporating climate change across all aspects of formal and informal education is the starting point for effective climate action. Climate education also needs to address the SDG goal of quality education and lifelong learning to ensure the resilience and adaptive capacity of those most vulnerable to climate impacts. For example:
- Italy and Mexico have taken action on climate education by introducing mandatory climate and environmental education, although both countries have yet to implement it, while New Zealand introduced optional climate change material to the school curriculum in 2019.
- Regional Centres of Expertise on Education and Sustainable Development (RCEs) are innovating on climate education with projects that demonstrate how climate education can work towards the SDGs. RCE Okayama, for example, empowers youth to teach their communities about climate change mitigation and adaptation activities.
Training
Training refers to vocational training in key climate-related sectors to develop practical and technical skills for securing a just transition to a low-carbon, climate resilient future that leaves no one behind. Two examples from the energy sector:
IRENA, the International Renewable Energy Agency, estimates that to meet the 1.5°C target, the energy-related workforce must more than double to 122 million jobs by 2050. With this in mind, IRENA have been running virtual renewable energy training sessions, aiming to build the capacity of young people to work in the renewable energy sector.
At a grassroots level – as part of an award-winning project electrifying more than 30,000 off-grid households in Rwanda and Tanzania – Mobisol’s Solar Home Systems trained technicians and sales staff, creating over 400 green jobs in the two countries.
Public Awareness
Public awareness through ACE aims to reach people of all ages and from all walks of life. Raising awareness about climate change impacts and solutions extends well beyond formal education or training programmes. Public awareness can take many forms. It can involve governments providing early warning information and safety instructions, or it can be a media campaign highlighting the impact of climate change on human and environmental health, or a public-sponsored radio programme to inform small-holder farmers about climate-resilient farming.
The Fridays for Future movement demonstrated how to raise public awareness about the climate crisis through school strikes, which generated significant media attention, and the attention of parents and teachers, on the urgent need for climate action and the intergenerational harm that emissions are causing.
Public Participation
Public participation in climate change decision-making is based on the idea that those affected by a decision have a right to be involved in the decision-making process. Providing the public with an opportunity to share their views and perspectives in decision-making processes enhances the quality of decisions and often results in a high rate of compliance with the policy or regulation being implemented.
There are several examples of countries incorporating public participation in their climate change decision-making, such as Peru’s ‘let’s talk about Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)’ initiative, a participatory process gathering inputs from a diverse public, including indigenous groups, women and youth.
Public Access to Information
ACE reinforces the fact that information on the climate crisis should be readily accessible and freely available to the public, so they are equipped with the tools to play an active, meaningful role in climate policy and action. The Aarhus Convention and the Escazú Agreement, two regional treaties, guarantee members of the public the right to access information on the environment as well as access to justice in relation to environmental matters.
It is not only governments that can provide open access to information. Youth Climate Action is a web platform co-created with young people that is designed to enable all young people access important information to enhance their meaningful participation in UNFCCC processes.
International Cooperation
International cooperation can enhance support to national efforts, allow for aggregation and joint efforts and create opportunities for knowledge exchange to foster greater climate action. ACE facilitates and participates in meetings to that end. Examples include:
- Annual in-session ACE dialogues under the UNFCCC have fostered the exchange of good practice and lessons learned from ACE implementation.
- The UN Alliance on Climate Change Education, Training and Public Awareness consists of 13 UN agencies working together to support countries build climate-resilient societies.
- At a regional level, EUROCLIMA+ is organising a community of practical learning on ACE with countries all over Latin America and the Caribbean.
We live in a time when everyone born today will spend their entire lives in a world already 1°C warmer than is safe. We have no more time to lose. ACE and its six elements are foundational in securing inclusive and informed climate action and ensuring that future generations can enter a low-emission, climate-resilient labour market with the knowledge and skills to thrive.