In order to raise awareness of the importance of promoting climate change learning, UN CC:Learn participated in the first session ever dedicated to this topic during the Annual Conference of the European Association for International Education (EAIE), held from 11 to 14 September 2018, in Geneva, Switzerland. The conference, which is Europe’s largest international conference on international education and is now in its 30th edition, gathered over 5,000 professionals from universities in 95 countries.
The session, titled “The way forward – universities facing and addressing climate change”, allowed participants to reflect on how to integrate climate change into higher education. As one the speakers, Ms. Cristina Rekakavas, UN CC:Learn Secretariat, emphasized that nobody can fix problems that he/she does not understand – therefore, it is essential to build knowledge and skills in order to effectively address climate change. Ms. Rekakavas then presented areas in which UN CC:Learn collaborates with national/regional learning institutions to up-scale the reach and sustainability of climate change education, including:
- Analyzing the impact of leaning activities and how they contribute to shifting behaviors and transitioning to greener and more resilient societies;
- Developing and disseminating learning resources on climate change, as those hosted on the UN CC:Learn e-learning platform;
- Promoting youth exchanges on climate change;
- Supporting the implementation of learning actions around the world.
After a first segment featuring 3 presentations, participants were invited to discuss in groups and identify concrete steps they could advance in their own institutions. By engaging with international educational networks, UN CC:Learn aims at supporting the growth of a critical mass of individuals around the world that have the necessary knowledge and skills to be able to take informed decisions and concrete actions to address climate change.