In a significant step towards empowering young educators and fostering climate action, the Climate Summer Camp gathered 75 early-career educators from primary and secondary schools across 35 countries worldwide, in a strong example of the transformative role of young people around the world in education and innovation to tackle the global climate crisis.

Across the globe, children and youth are calling for access to quality climate education. To respond to this challenge, the COP29 Presidency Youth Climate Champion, Leyla Hasanova, together with UN Climate Change and other partners, organised the inaugural COP29 Climate Change Summer Camp from August 6-9 at ADA University in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Hasanova said that improving access to climate education is no small task, but it is critical to advancing our shared climate goals.

“Equipping teachers with the right resources is an essential step in the right direction,” she said.

A UNESCO analysis of 100 national education curricula in 2021 showed that nearly half (47 per cent) do not mention climate change.

Here in Australia, encouragingly, Version 9.0 mentions climate change 32 times.

In a recent international survey, nearly 95 per cent of teachers globally said they believed that it is important or very important to teach about the severity of climate change and its effects, yet only 23 per cent of teachers felt able to properly address climate action in their classrooms, and 70 per cent of young people surveyed could not explain climate change properly and expressed concerns about the way in which it is currently taught.

Not surprisingly, currently the countries most likely to include climate change content are those in regions most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, as opposed to those largely responsible for the emissions causing climate change.  

During a recent address to the UNESCO Executive Board in Paris, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell stressed the importance of education for climate action.

Source: Getting every school climate-ready: how countries are integrating climate change issues in education.

“Education is key for the future. We need to train the next generation to address climate change in various fields,” Stiell said.

“Climate education should be part of all school curricula. This is why the Greening Education Partnership is so important.”

The Climate Summer Camp aligned with the work of the Greening Education Partnership, introducing and applying new resources, such as the Greening Curriculum Guidance and the Green School Quality Standard – tools developed by the Partnership to support countries, schools and individual educators in implementing climate action through education.

The Camp’s program covered critical concepts related to climate change, including its causes and impacts, as well as climate justice and climate anxiety.

It addressed all aspects of climate change education – cognitive, socio-emotional and behavioural – ensuring a comprehensive understanding among participants.

The training sought to inspire and motivate young educators to apply their newfound knowledge and teaching methods upon returning to their schools.

Fostering peer-to-peer exchange and networking was also emphasised, allowing educators to discuss challenges and share solutions, thereby building a global community of practice.

“I joined the Climate Summer Camp to learn more from educators around the world about how they implement climate change education,” Gurpreet Kaur, an English Language primary school teacher from Malaysia, said.

“The Climate Change Camp has given me the knowledge and confidence to continue teaching and fighting climate change,” Sam Baker, an Earth Science high school teacher from the United States, added.

For more about the COP29 Presidency Youth Climate Champion, click here. 

For more about the Greening Education Partnership, click here.