The first COP was held in 1995 in Berlin, and since then
different ways of how to challenge climate change towards sustainable
development has always been debated. But it was only last year, at the COP20 in
Lima, when they decided that in the following COP, there should be a time for
education. But not education as we have seen it so far, but inclusive education
across the board in all parts of the curriculum in formal and non-formal
environmental education.
In COP20 last year, in Lima (Peru), the Ministers and
heads of delegation adopted the Declaration of Lima on Education and Awareness.
The Declaration urges governments to include climate change in school curricula
and "climate" awareness in national development plans.
The opinion of the President of the COP20, Manuel Vidal,
is that "education is the key and the new development paradigm ".
More and more governments follow this call and have
integrated education strategies, tools and objectives in national sustainable
development policies and issues of integrated sustainable development,
including climate change in their policies and education plans. Countries such
as Uganda, Dominican Republic, Peru and Morocco have already taken concrete
actions.
It does not mean that education and awareness were not important
in other conferences, but many years have gone since Berlin (COP1, 1995), until
one day (or thematic day, as they say here) was dedicated to education, with
the goal that Education for Sustainable Development will become a topic for all
the present and future conferences on climate change.
For this day, a document entitled "Manifesto for
Education towards planetary citizenship" was created. The text, with
almost 80 pages, shows the reasons why the transition to sustainable
development will not be achieved without action at the level of life long
education, working together, with the participation of all generations The
Manifesto was presented at one of the round tables in the Generation Area.
During the morning, the 15-year-old young activist, Xuhtezcatl
Martinez, (Earth Guardians) in one of his speeches said that "it is
necessary to change the way we educate."
As part of the COP21, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, Minister of
National Education, Higher Education and Research of France, with the presence
of Segolene Royal, Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy in
France, Rachid Belmokhtar, Minister of National Education and Vocational
Training from Morocco (host of COP 22) and Irina Bokova, Director-General of
UNESCO, hosted the conference "Good practices in education for sustainable
development: how to drive change to educate the challenges of climate
change". The debate was organized around two round tables:
• States and best practice guidance of educational change
for sustainable development in the educational system: Quebec, France, Japan,
Finland.
• The partners of education systems, actors in change
management for sustainable development
At the end of the Conference, the youngsters Jules
(France), Frederikke and Boel (Denmark), intervened to call the attention of
the ministers of education to the importance of a change in the educational
system, not only for sustainable development, but also as a way to be adapted
to the new social, economic and environmental circumstances, highlighting the
importance of including the issue of climate change in the educational program.
This young group is part of the Network of Youth "Let's Take Care of the
Planet", a project coordinated by the French association Monde Pluriel.
With this project young people from all across Europe highlight the importance
of co-responsibility for the environmental problems.
At the end of the afternoon the event "Non-Formal
Education in climate change" took place, where there was an explanation of
how new technologies, such as video games, music and social networking tools
can be used to educate. They also emphasized the importance of young people and
children, as being part of the solution.
During their speeches, Yoka Brandt (UN Alliance) said
that "schools have a very important role in creating paper stewards of the
land" and highlighted the role of youth in the change. Nick Nuttall
(UNFCCC), said that "education is the transition to sustainable development",
and that it is not only necessary to "educate" young people but
also" re-educate" adults.
During the conference, as an example of how to raise
awareness of climate change, they showed a campaign called "We are angry
for Climate Change" which leverage the known Angry Birds game to send a
message to sustainable development.
We can conclude that an effort must be done to improve
teaching methodologies, concepts and content that we want to communicate and
how to do so to adapt to the new social, economic and environmental scenarios
that we currently have.
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