Building Education-Focused Pathways for Climate Change

If there was any doubt left about education being a catalytic lever for addressing climate change & energy transitions, the recent announcement of a climate-focused RewirEd Summit around COP28 has put that to bed, presenting an amazing opportunity for real action & results in the fight against climate change, as stated by the Director General of COP28 Majid Al-Suwaidi. And by actively mobilising key stakeholders from the education & climate sectors and other allied sectors including food, health & mobility, the summit is expected to build on the Greening Education Partnership launched last year by UNESCO.

According to the The Education Commission, and backed by research by Global Partnership for Education, The Brookings Institution & The World Bank, investing in education is essential for achieving sustainable development, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions & building resilience to the impacts of climate change.

However, in order to truly leverage the power of education in the fight against climate change, we must also address the systemic inequalities that prevent many people from accessing quality education, as visualized in the RewirEd 1.0 system map developed by Radicle. With more than 260 million children & youth still out of school, many of whom live in the poorest & most vulnerable communities, it is essential that we work to ensure that all children & young people have access to quality education. This means:

- Investing in education systems that are inclusive, equitable, & responsive to the needs of all learners.

- Bringing on diverse multi-sectoral actors & stakeholders that are willing to challenge the status quo.

- Taking an inclusive integrated non-siloed approach, leveraging data, insights, research, financing, programs & policy

While COP27 helped progress the dialogue & maintain the net-zero ambition, much work remains to be done to ensure a successful outcomes-oriented COP28 as desired by its leadership & RewirEd 2.0 could thus provide the much-needed X-factor. Systems-based approaches that address both the environment and the human activities that drive climate change are essential to achieving further progress. And only by designing & launching cross-sectoral pathways for multi-stakeholder collaboration, can the world hope to achieve its goals, enhance resilience in the education sector & ultimately create a safe & sustainable future.

COP28 comes at a critical time in our human history. And to make this moment count, we must ultimately make education a foundational pillar of any climate change strategy, for it is only through learning about the science & implications of climate change, as well as how we can implement novel strategies that address it, that we can ensure that COP28 will be successful, & lead to a more climate-resilient world.

RewirEd 1.0 was a milestone in many ways — and a COP28-centric RewirEd 2.0 led by Dubai Cares promises to take the bar even higher. Can’t wait!