Education is a powerful tool in adapting to and mitigating climate change. Yet climate change threatens the efficient provision of education. We call this the Education-Climate Nexus.
It is time for a call worldwide for disaster preparedness and climate education in schools and upskilling teachers while at the same time making the education systems climate resilient. Schools, infrastructure, and transport need to be prepared to withstand extreme weather conditions, amongst other.
In December 2023, during COP28 (28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) member states signed a milestone Declaration on the Common Agenda for Education and Climate Change stressing the impacts of climate crisis on education and that at the same time, education provides the “knowledge and skills required for a changing world and plays an essential role to powering the shift at scale to more sustainable, equitable, just, and climate-resilient societies”.
This common understanding of recognising and addressing the Education-Climate nexus provides hope. But it is a long way to go. The declaration has been endorsed by 45 states so far. Ireland is not yet among them. And it has been 6 months since COP28. Has it been forgotten on the agenda? The potential is there, as Ireland is a strong supporter of GPE and ECW and their efforts in the area of climate change are growing. It is time to act and call on the Irish government to take a leadership role on this front. This will be a – if not the – most important dual agenda of today.
