How to Build Skills for Climate Action in School-Aged Children and Youth

Climate change is increasing temperatures and the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, floods, landslides, and tropical storms at an unprecedented rate in Latin America and the Caribbean. These climate changes are causing devastating socioeconomic impacts in the region. Education has a leading role in supporting efforts to decarbonize and increase resilience to climate change.

Below is a review of how environmental education can lead to change and concrete actions to achieve it.

The Three Roles of Education in Confronting Climate Change

In 2015, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change was adopted to prevent even more dangerous temperature increases. In this agreement, countries commit to implementing strategies to decarbonize their economies and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, aiming to maintain the temperature increase below 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels. At the same time, countries identified strategies to increase resilience to the consequences of climate change in people, communities, and their economies.

In this context, why should education be considered when discussing climate change? How does education contribute to decarbonization and building resilience towards climate change?

At first glance, it might seem that these two issues are not related. When thinking about climate change, topics such as renewable energy, circular economy, sustainable agriculture, and resilience to climate disasters come to mind.

However, the connection between the two is clear, not only because educational centers can do more to reduce their carbon footprint but because climate change is a factor that threatens the continuity of learning.

For example, in 2021, hurricanes and tropical storms Eta and Iota damaged or destroyed almost 1,000 schools in Honduras and Guatemala. These climatic events caused nearly 700 educational centers to be used as shelters. Meanwhile, Hurricane Matthew in 2016 damaged over 300 schools in Haiti and caused more than 100,000 students to lose learning due to the damage and the use of schools as shelters. In these circumstances, and given the low technological incorporation, educational systems have also been unable to implement alternative quality teaching methods that allow them to continue providing the service in the face of these emergencies.

Education plays three leading roles in accompanying and adding value to the countries’ agenda of decarbonization and resilience to climate change: 

1. Educate in green citizenship: Education develops critical skills during school age to equip children and youth with the knowledge, values, and capacity for action in favor of the environment, what we call green citizenship. During school age, young people also acquire skills that allow them to access and succeed in jobs related to the decarbonization of the economy, such as solar energy, electric transportation, and the circular economy.
2. Resilience to avoid discontinuing learning: Educational systems must be resilient and continue operating in the face of extreme climate events and minimize disruptions to learning. Here, it is key to have schools that remain standing in the face of strong winds or that are located in places that do not suffer frequent flooding. Additionally, well-developed distance education systems allow children and young people to continue studying during these emergencies until they can return to the classroom.
3. Sustainable educational service: It is essential to implement climate sustainability practices in school infrastructure and the operation of the academic service to contribute to decarbonization goals. These strategies include constructing schools that minimize the use of energy or water, electric school transportation, and school gardens to grow food for school cafeterias, among others.

12 Actions To Fight Climate Change From Educational Systems 

How Do We Develop Green Citizenship at School Age? 

1. Reforming national curricula and study plans to incorporate the development of knowledge about the environment, biodiversity, and climate change throughout the school year, the appreciation and respect of nature, environment, and biodiversity, and behaviors in favor of the environment. This includes encouraging extracurricular programs that allow students to complement and contextualize climate change education.

2. Expanding the offer of technical-professional and higher education programs that develop skills for green jobs in coordination with the growth and decarbonization strategies of the countries, the productive sector, and labor training systems.

3. Training teachers to have the knowledge and skills to deliver climate change education with effective pedagogical practices based on projects and problem-solving that promote lifelong learning.

4. Developing and adapting instruments to measure skills for green citizenship that allow monitoring student learning and informing education policies for climate change.

How Can We Increase The Resilience of Educational Systems? 

5. Including resilience strategies to the main climate threats in school design, construction, and operation. For example, in the face of the threat of drought, installing rainwater collection and treatment systems or in the face of increased temperatures, guaranteeing natural cross ventilation or sun protection measures.

6. Having emergency plans to prepare the educational system for climatic eventualities. This may include temporarily implementing distance learning models to provide continuity of academic service during weather emergencies until a return to the classroom is possible.

7. Increasing socio-emotional support for students before, during, and after extreme weather events complements the health sector’s efforts.

How Do We Achieve Climate Sustainability in Academic Buildings and The Provision of Educational Services?

8. Incorporating climate sustainability strategies in school infrastructure design, construction, and use. For example, using solar panels or LED lights to save energy, self-closing faucets in bathrooms to save water, or using low-energy and environmentally-impact construction materials (local materials, recycled and produced with less energy use).

9. Expanding technology and digital educational management systems to reduce people’s transportation and use paper to carry out educational procedures and resource management. Or promote distance education for certain educational modalities (flexible secondary education modalities, teacher training, remote tutoring) that reduce the travel of students and teachers and thus reduce GHG emissions.

10. Ensuring that electronic devices have low energy consumption certification and that their packaging, recycling, and final disposal are environmentally friendly.

11. Reducing the environmental impact of transportation to school by using public transportation and electric school transportation.

12. Reducing the environmental impact of school feeding programs by, for example, using local and sustainably grown products and promoting the use of fruits and vegetables from school gardens.

To learn more actions and details about advancing a green educational agenda and leading the fight against climate change through education, we invite you to review the new publication “Education and climate change: how to develop skills for climate action at school age?”