Education Day – COP24

Each year at the COPs, there are a number of thematic days. Today (December 13th) is Education Day. In the original 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Article 6 focused on education, training, public awareness, public participation, public access to information, and international cooperation on these issues. This same focus on education and outreach is in Article 12 of the Paris Agreement of 2015. Out of this arose Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) which is reflected in not only the UNFCCC, but other international frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals.

A high-level event on climate education

For years, there have been conversations about how to communicate the science of climate change and its impacts in a way that is both understood by the public and helps to promote climate action. In Morocco (2016), an informal group interested in education, communication and outreach started meeting. This group, ECOS, has now been endorsed as an informal group by the UNFCCC Secretariat and represents international network-of-networks for climate literacy, engagement, action and learning. The met today to determine their mission, goals and action plans for the coming year.

Yale University has an entire program dedicated to climate change communication. Katharine Hayhoe is a scientist who has a YouTube channel called “Global Weirding” that has reached a variety of audiences, including Evangelical Christians. In 2018, she was awarded the 2018 Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication. Stephen Schneider was a climate scientist who along with Michael Mann, James Hansen, and others, have written books about climate change that were aimed at a general audience.

The Bordeaux 2050 case study that Adriana wrote about in a separate post is a brilliant way of demonstrating climate impacts and their relevance to a particular audience.

Gillian Bowser (CSU) and I tried the Bordeaux of the future. We didn't like it.

These examples of educational and outreach initiatives (and there are countless others) are all worthwhile and necessary. But have they moved the needle in terms of a global understanding of climate change, of the very real threat that humanity (and all of the biosphere) faces? In educational assessment terms, have the learning goals been achieved? Perhaps somewhat. I know from my own teaching and conversations, that people are more aware of climate change than they used to be. But clearly it is still not sufficient.

We need the masses to persuade (demand that) their national leaders to make climate change, and protection of the people they represent, a priority. They need to step up and make climate change action (not just policy) as ambitious as it needs to be in order to keep the planet from warming beyond dangerous levels. So far, the world leaders deserve a failing grade for this assignment.