1 year on from COP 26 in Glasgow, we explore what has changed and revisit the Portobello High School Eco Committee who featured in our November 2021 issue.
"Schools should be leading the way to show young people how to use resources more consciously and climate issues should be prioritised."
The past eight years were the eight hottest ever recorded, a new UN report has found, indicating the world is now deep into the climate crisis. The internationally agreed 1.5C limit for global heating is now “barely within reach”, it said.
The report, by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO), sets out how record high greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are driving sea level and ice melting to new highs and supercharging extreme weather from Pakistan to Puerto Rico.
The stark assessment was published on the opening day of the UN’s COP 27 climate summit in Egypt and as the UN secretary-general warned that “our planet is on course to reach tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible”.
"Young people can make a difference, but it shouldn't be foisted onto young people to solve the problems, and this shouldn't be used as an excuse by government for the current people in decision-making seats not to take action."
The World Waits
The opening of COP 27 comes with a stark warning, and it can be hard to see what has changed, positively, since COP 26. Despite calling for all nations to come together with greater urgency and ambition than ever before, the final outcome was a compromise which watered down the very actions required to keep global warning at the 1.5C limit. The world now waits to see what the outcome of COP 27 will be.
It is easy to feel powerless, anxious and overwhelmed in the light of the doom-laden reports like the above which fill our news outlets around climate breakdown. I spoke to Catriona Crawford and Portobello High School about the importance of Climate Education and how to forge a message of critical hope with children and young people.
Climate Education
“My personal feeling is that there is nothing more than lip service being paid to embedding Learning for Sustainability across the curriculum. There are lots of interesting and well-developed resources available but unless space is carved out of teachers' days or climate crisis issues get onto the exam diet then there is no space to use them with the majority of pupils and it will remain a niche issue for a small number. Schools should be leading the way to show young people how to use resources more consciously and climate issues should be prioritised.”
Listening to Young People
The Eco Group in Portobello High School believe that more than ever climate education is needed and should be embedded across the curriculum but also taught as a standalone subject
The group also feel very strongly that Governments should be taking action saying:
“Young people can make a difference, but it shouldn't be foisted onto young people to solve the problems, and this shouldn't be used as an excuse by government for the current people in decision-making seats not to take action. By the time the young generation hold the power it will be too late.”
This feeling of not enough and not quick enough is echoed by young people in Children’s Parliament in their Children’s Parliament Investigates: Learning for Sustainability project report.
"The need to prioritise Learning for Sustainability in Scottish Education and value what it provides for our children and young people is paramount."
Calls to Action
The children and young people in the report shared their Calls to Action to adults for improving Learning for Sustainability curriculum in Scotland. These included:
- Children should be able to regularly learn about climate change and sustainability outside in nature.
- Adults in school and adults who decide what we learn, need to learn about the climate emergency too.
- Children are passionate about climate change; their views, ideas and opinions should be included in how and what they learn about this subject.
- Children and adults should have opportunities to work together on children’s rights, climate change and sustainability.
How can we as educators respond to the calls to action from children and young people in Scotland? There are many useful resources and provides of professional learning for teachers in this area (See good to know) However, how we move from individual teachers driving this work forward within their classrooms, to a position where all teachers are embedding climate education into the curriculum, is a harder step.
One thing is clear though: the need to prioritise Learning for Sustainability in Scottish Education and value what it provides for our children and young people is paramount. While we can only wait and hope that world leaders at COP 27 will act decisively for action on the climate, we as educators can strive to ensure that climate education is at the forefront of our education system.
