Dear Education for Climate community,
These days we are facing complex and intertwined planetary challenges.
As the war in Ukraine unfolds, we express our solidarity with all those suffering.
Keeping them in our hearts and minds, we believe that the Education for Climate's appropriate approach is to continue pursuing even more so its values of deciding collectively, acting collaboratively and adapting sustainably - for a future in which we overcome together the challenges ahead.
Moreover, the most recent IPCC report highlights that “[t]he cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.” (UN IPCC AR6 2022, Summary for Policymakers)
In light of this, we would like to take a moment to reflect together about the events and challenges that are planned for this year and acknowledge if this is how the community sees its way forward under these circumstances.
What are the concrete participatory challenges that you, as a community, now feel the need to tackle or re-focus on together?
- For example, in the last months, we have been working on the call for Transforming Places of Learning together with the New European Bauhaus. We are looking for ongoing or upcoming projects that work on changing a learning environment, such as schools, libraries, and community centres. Including formal or informal places where people learn – and perhaps even temporary solutions for displaced children, students, and educators would be appropriate in the current situation.
- Another example could be channelling the community’s expertise into digesting the above IPCC report into accessible pedagogical information and activities for students and neighbourhoods to act within the still vaguely open window of opportunity for doing so.
Let us know by contributing to the referenced conversations and this post on the platform.
The Coalition’s common aim is to establish an ever-growing and solid, active community co-innovating for education for environmental sustainability. A pan-European collaboration platform engaging an increasing number of students, teachers, and stakeholders to connect across themes and issues, unlock beautiful challenges, develop projects together and re-use sustainable solutions in a participatory manner.
To act on this and address the raised questions, in the coming weeks we foresee to
- establish the first Advisory Group where in its first meeting we will be able to cover and consult on the issues at hand
- embark even more so on opening and building up the National Coalitions with you. We want the first Coordinator’s meeting to be the starting point of an ever-so growing pan-European network of local initiatives coming together and reach out to each other across National Coalitions to exchange and co-innovate. If you have anybody in mind who would be missing from this coordination table to multiply our vision concretely, please invite them to this session!
Let’s re-energize the European communities for what they are worth: overcoming divides to co-create a better future.
The Education for Climate Secretariat
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