Learning to win the battle against climate change

About half of the world’s 2.2 billion children live in the most climate-vulnerable countries. AFP

While there is growing global consensus on the urgency to tackle climate change, the international community has yet to fully realise the irreparable damage that it is inflicting on one of humanity’s most effective tools to deal with it: education.

Education remains overlooked in the climate policy agenda, making up less than 1.3 per cent of climate-related official development assistance in 2020, and mentioned in fewer than one in three national plans to reduce emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change.

At Cop28, under the leadership of the UAE, learning took centre stage.

Learning has been essential to humankind’s adaptation and survival. Schools can be safe shelters that protect children and their families during extreme weather events. School is where children learn how their everyday actions and choices affect the environment. It is also where they develop skills that will help the world transition to a greener and more prosperous economy. An additional year of education increases climate awareness by 8.6 per cent.

Indeed, schools change behaviours, grow skills and stimulate innovation. These are all essential to tackling the lethal threat facing humanity. But climate change is already blunting these tools.

About half of the world’s 2.2 billion children live in the most climate-vulnerable countries. Girls are disproportionately affected: extreme climate events are set to prevent at least 12.5 million girls from completing their education each year.

Learning has been essential to humankind’s adaptation and survival

A new study by the Belgian-based Vrije Universiteit Brussel found that, on average, a child born in 2020 is projected to experience twice as many wildfires, three times as many floods and nearly seven times as many heatwaves during their lifetimes compared with a person born in 1960.

Climate change is making heatwaves longer, more extreme and more frequent, disrupting education for millions of children around the world. Children in low and middle-income countries that are least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions are projected to feel climate change’s worst effects.

This year alone, Pakistan closed schools for 26 million children for a full week when temperatures soared to more than 40°C. Bangladesh shut schools for half its students during a heatwave. South Sudan saw scorching temperatures of up to 45°C and ordered schools to close for two weeks.

Even if schools remain open, extremely high temperatures affect children’s cognitive development and result in learning losses. A new analysis shows that even slowly increasing temperatures could amount to significant cumulative learning losses over time.

In fact, even education policymakers do not seem to fully comprehend how climate change affects learning. Only half of the education policymakers recently surveyed by the World Bank across 28 low and middle-income countries believe that hotter temperatures hinder learning. According to Unesco, fewer than half of curriculums worldwide have a reference to climate change.

Schoolgirls wearing masks ride a motorcycle as they leave from school amid a rise in the levels of smog in Lahore in October. AFP

Commitment to education as a key pillar in climate action was prominent at Cop28, where, for the first time ever, a day was dedicated to education and the Declaration on the Common Agenda for Education and Climate Change was adopted. This marked the first global political acknowledgment of the critical link between education and climate action. So far, 90 member states have signed the declaration, committing to allocate resources to climate adaptation, mitigation and investment to create education systems and learners that are climate-ready.

At Cop28, the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Save the Children also launched a joint project aiming to make education systems in vulnerable countries greener by supporting the education sector’s climate adaptation; making school infrastructure more climate-resilient; ensuring learning continuity during extreme climate events; and, most importantly, recruiting pupils and teachers as allies in the fight against climate change.

Building on these steps is not only critical to fortify our climate action but is also a cost-effective investment. Every dollar invested in making education systems climate-smarter can save up to $15 in post-disaster recovery, demonstrating the imperative of integrating education in climate financing.

As the first and largest GPE donor in the Middle East and currently hosting its board meeting, the UAE is committed to supporting international efforts to invest in education as an effective tool in responding to climate change.

Global co-operation is the only way we can place learning at the heart of climate action, helping vulnerable countries turn their schools into infinite reservoirs of green learners who are humanity’s chance of surviving and reversing climate change.