In November 2023 at COP27, countries agreed to ‘ACE’ – the Action for Climate Empowerment plan – to enable all members of society, including children and youth, to better understand climate change and take action to support transitions to a more low-emission, climate resilient world. ACE prioritises education alongside five other elements. Importantly, it recognises that the circumstances and capabilities of different countries vary and thus that ACE should be implemented according to the national context.
We know already that climate change is aggravating existing inequalities across the world. People living in least developed, and conflict affected contexts are bearing the brunt of climate-related damage and harm due to a combination of geographical, social and economic vulnerabilities. For example, in 2022, when three separate tropical storms Ana, Batsirai, and Dumako, hit the Southeast Coast of Madagascar in the space of five weeks, 2,562 classrooms were destroyed, leaving 133,627 children without education. In a stroke of bitter irony, climate change reduces already limited resources for climate change education in the world’s poorest countries.
While the injustices are clear, we know far less about how educational responses for climate action and empowerment can amplify the voices of disproportionately affected groups and help to mitigate the unequal impacts of climate change. Participants at ‘Conversations for Change: The Future of education for Global Climate Justice’, an event hosted by UKIFET in November 2022, agreed that this should be a priority for education that seeks to advance climate justice.
In this blog, we look at two countries where such disproportionate effects are felt, with examples of how this impacts education and some responses. The first example is from Kenya and the second from Bahamas.
