Frank Niepold is the Senior Climate Education and Workforce Program Manager and Coordinator of the US scientific and regulatory agency “ National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration” known as the NOAA.
He is also co-chair of the U.S. Global Change Research Program's Climate Engagement and Capacity Building Interagency Group and is the U.S. National Communications Report chapter lead on Education, Engagement, Training, and Workforce Development for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Clearly, Frank has a wealth of experience in science and climate education, which he helped introduce to NOAA. He has an overview of what is happening in the United States and wants to share what he knows in order to increase collaboration at international level and in particular with EU countries, because he knows that the solutions to the problems we face also lie in this international collaboration around climate education.
Frank reminds us that Article 6 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) stands that all parties should promote the “development and implementation of educational and public awareness programmes on climate change and its effects”. But until now, we've never lived up to the full potential of this article agreed 32 years ago.
This is why we need to do more, and share more between all persons and institutions involved in climate education, in particular between the US and the EU.
Questions:
02:15 What is your journey into ESD?
09:40 Can you focus on the specific activities/projects you lead on climate education?
18:55 What are the challenges you encountered in implementing your projects and the way to overcome them?
More information:
- The CLEAN Collection of Climate and Energy Science resources- high-quality, digital resources---including learning activities, visualizations, videos, and short demonstrations/experiments---geared toward educators of students in secondary through undergraduate levels.
- Guidance in Teaching Climate and Energy Science pages designed to help educators understand and be equipped to teach the big ideas in climate and energy science.
- The CLEAN Network is a community of professionals committed to improving climate and energy literacy. A professionally diverse community of over 800 members committed to improving climate and energy literacy locally, regionally, nationally, and globally, to enable responsible decisions and actions.
- The STEM Teaching Tools Climate Learning Resources site has tools that can help educators teach science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). To support them to build capacity for this work, a suite of resources has been created that focuses on different aspects of this work. Climate science learning has to happen across PK-12 classrooms, in informal education and outdoor contexts, and in community-based learning settings.
- Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science is an interagency guide that provides a framework and essential principles for formal and informal education about climate change.
- The Climate Engagement and Capacity Building Interagency Group (CEC) at the U.S. Global Change Research Program coordinates federal agency climate and global change efforts focused on community engagement, education, public awareness, workforce development, and training. The CEC works to make resources for climate action more accessible and useful to the Federal Government, sub-national governments, organizations, and the public.
- United States of America. National Communication (NC) to the UNFCCC. NC 8. 2022, Chapter 9 Climate Education, Engagement, Workforce Development, And Training
- The Wild Center’s Youth Climate Program works to convene, engage, connect and empower young people around the world to take action on climate change. It does this through conference-style Youth Climate Summits that focus on the knowledge and skills needed to become effective climate leaders.
Are you interested to watch previous episodes? Check the Education for Climate TALKs
We released the updated Climate Literacy Guide on September 24th, 2024. Check it out here: https://www.climate.gov/teaching/climate.
Climate Literacy: Essential Principles for Understanding and Addressing Climate Change presents information that is important for individuals and communities to know and understand about Earth’s climate, the impacts of climate change, and solutions. Principles in the guide can serve as discussion starters or launching points for learning about the climate crisis and what’s being done to address it across the world.
The guide aims to promote greater climate literacy by providing this educational and communication framework of principles and concepts.
This 2024 edition is built on the most up-to-date climate assessments at the time of publication: the United States’ Fifth National Climate Assessment (November 2023) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report (2021-2023). These assessments acknowledge that there are many ways to understand climate change.
The scientific disciplines of physics, chemistry, and biology inform our understanding of the Earth system, underpinning our knowledge in Earth science, atmospheric science, and oceanography. All these disciplines help us understand changes to the climate and ecosystems.
Insights from scientific disciplines including public health, anthropology, geography, economics, engineering, and political science provide essential understanding of how human actions impact climate, how climate impacts diverse communities and their environments, and how we can respond to climate change.
Indigenous Knowledges from many communities and cultures include long-standing and rigorous observations, valuable insights, and historically proven practices that support understanding of climate change.
Local or place-based knowledge, which is developed and shared by residents or land managers based on lived experience or professional expertise, can provide important information about local climate change impacts and the efficacy of potential solutions.
Practical knowledge from the private sector provides insights into the potential of sector-based practices for addressing climate change.
Thank you so much for this information dear Frank Niepold . I will share it with our community through the next Newsletter/Bulletin, to be published this Thurday (as you TALK again btw). Congratulations for the Guide.