Ministers of education & Youth4Climate delegates exchange on climate education at the pre-COP in Milan

Published on August 4, 2022

UNESCO

UNESCO organized an event at Youth4Climate; in which, the more than 400 climate leaders from all over the world met with 6 Ministers of Education to ask them questions about the current status of climate education, inclusivity, young peoples’ role in decision making and their commitments for COP26.

Youth4Climate delegates met Ministers of education

Young people had the opportunity to talk about this topic with several ministers from different regions of the world, so they consulted, asked questions and also proposed ideas for a greater inclusion of civil society in public policies. Through this process, the youth strengthened and/or generated diplomatic capacities in what is multilevel dialogue, exposing their contributions to the different SDGs that are needed to make a climate front.

This intergenerational talk also involves an act of detachment from our preconceived ideas of what we imagine "sustainable" between generations, so the event also incurred in being able to redefine ways of consuming and producing sustainably and how to spread information about it in the populations.

The event motivates the Sustainable Development Goal number 12 from climate education and governance; since the meeting of young people from different parts of the world and Ministers from various countries, provided a space to discuss the goals proposed in multilevel spaces and how the authorities include youth in these plans, within which is the concept of sustainable production and consumption.

How are countries integrating Climate Change in their education curricula?

On the other hand, UNESCO, through a previous study, found that less than half of the studied educational curricula and policy documents from almost 50 member states mentioned “climate change” at all. Therefore, this event not only served to strengthen the trust between youth and authorities, necessary to continue working together; but also, to highlight the need to increase efforts and working groups focused on dealing with climate change, as a global community, both in the planning of policies and regulations and in day-to-day practice (implementing actions, supervising and regularizing ), adapting and mitigating greenhouse gases (GHG).

Although a wide variety of topics related to climate change and climate governance were discussed, SDG12 was not overlooked at this meeting and a conversation was held with different perspectives and realities; which, remains as a precedent to the future.