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Education for climate change, education for sustainability

Children are the key players who must be taken into consideration when creating climate change policies.

Raisya Rahmah Noor and Rika Safrina (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, June 19, 2021

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Education for climate change, education for sustainability

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limate change mitigation efforts often play around adopting renewable energy sources such as solar and wind or transforming cities to utilize more sustainable transportation, such as electric vehicles or biofuels. Unfortunately, the mitigation strategy of a quality education experience is rarely discussed.

It is indisputable that education contributes significantly to the long-term solution for climate change mitigation. To assess climate threats, develop innovative solutions and implement them, we require knowledge, skills, and awareness from different levels of society --- children, adolescents, researchers or government officials.

Intergovernmental organizations, such as UNESCO and ASEAN, have long paid attention to this matter. Initiatives were created to empower learners of all ages and segments of societies with the knowledge and attitudes to address the interconnected global challenges of climate change.

UNESCO has embedded climate change education as part of the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) program UNESCO emphasizes the importance of persuading the global community to adopt climate change education to guarantee concrete and practical measures for a sustainable future.

During the UN Alliance’s Climate Education Training event in Germany in June 2015, Christiana Figueres, the then-executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, explained the purpose of the dialogue was to implement the climate change issue into education and training programs globally to bring people together and enable them to be part of the solution. 

“It is not only about studying climate change but also about understanding it. It is critical to include it in curriculum, but it needs to be embedded in the DNA of today’s very education concept. It is not just another course; it is about how everything else we study or do is affected by climate change. It is about understanding the transformation to be able to act on it,” Figueres said.

Meanwhile, through The ASEAN Work Plan on Education 2016 – 2020, ASEAN had its way of strengthening collaboration between education and other sectors related to sustainable development, complementing the objectives of UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development.

ASEAN encouraged its member states to implement the eco-school concept by assisting the ASEAN Eco-Schools Award Program and ASEAN Environmental Education Forum for green schools. Other projects included conducting multi-disciplinary research on social and sustainability sciences for understanding environmental issues in ASEAN.

The initiatives have pushed countries to incorporate climate change education schemes into their national agenda. In Cambodia, the collaboration of ministries of environment and education has successfully introduced an eco-school concept. Through Eco-School, students can involve in various climate-related activities such as growing trees, creating a small forest demo, or recycling plastic wastes into attractive souvenirs. Moreover, with the support of the European Union, Sweden, and the UNDP, Cambodia has also integrated a climate change curriculum for higher secondary schools in 2020. 

In Indonesia, the Sandwatch Foundation, with its mission being to promote a more sustainable lifestyle and habits, facilitated elementary school students to participate in integrated education and agro-forest activities called Carbon Farming School. Students were involved in various activities, such as social forestry and land rehabilitation.

Children are the key players who must be taken into consideration when creating climate change policies. They could influence their parents and peers to behave more sustainably.

Universities have also started to offer a program that enables students to make connections across different disciplinary boundaries in delivering energy and addressing the threats of climate change. Harvard Kennedy School developed a Climate Change and Energy: Policymaking for the Long Term program, which provided a deeper understanding of the science, economics and policy of climate change and closely related aspects of energy production and use. The program informs students about all critical dimensions of challenges that countries and businesses are currently facing, especially on the consequences of the combustion of fossil fuels.

In Indonesia, Diponegoro University has promoted environmentally-friendly design and construction by equipping their buildings with ecological features such as hydropower, chiller, biogas and solar panels. Gadjah Mada University has also furnished its building with energy-efficient appliances such as lamps and air conditioners. According to Cordero, Centeno, & Todd (2020), the potential reduction in carbon emissions from climate change-related education programs alone, if were applied on a large scale, would have a similar magnitude to other large-scale mitigation strategies, such as electric vehicles.

However, it is difficult to change the education system. Adding another issue to the table, like integrating climate change education, would be a complex endeavor that requires solid political will at the national level, a systematic approach, and sustained actions. Trustworthy institutional, excellent technical capacities and considerable financial investment of a country are also needed.

Preneau, Khattabi, & Demers (2010) illustrate that experiential learning is the best type of learning to achieve climate change education. The local community and the support of specialists are needed to bring people out in the field, pursue them to observe and analyze current changes in the human and natural ecosystems, and finally ask them collectively to find the solutions for the issues found. Nonetheless, these would also involve both cognitive and situational challenges such as a weak problem resolution skill and absence of harmony within the community.

Education in its broadest sense has a vital role in mitigating climate change. Educating people about climate change is imperative to support shaping and sustaining current and future policy-making, as well as enacting financial and technological incentives related to sustainability.

However, climate change education is not as simple as integrating a new curriculum at schools. Reflection is crucial to equip and empower people to deal with rapid changes. It also requires the development of a sound pedagogical approach and an encouraging learning environment in formal and informal education.

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Rika Safrina is a technical officer of Modelling, Policy, and Planning Department at ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE). Raisya Rahma Noor is an intern of the Executive Director Department at ACE.

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