A baseline for understanding global provision of climate change education and communication: Implications for understanding social responsibility for climate action

• In Event: Increasing social responsibility for climate action through quality climate change education and communication

Proposal

Apart from two international studies, there is little global data when it comes to tracking which countries are taking on the responsibility for delivering quality education for climate action. One study from 2018 analyzed 368 documents from 194-member countries under UNFCCC intergovernmental agreements (1992, 2015) for the quality and quantity of their inclusion of content on climate change education, training, and public awareness. The study found an overemphasis in countries’ attention to the cognitive dimensions of climate change education and communications (CCEC) over behavioural, social, and emotional dimensions of learning (McKenzie, 2019). Another study from 2019 analyzed 160 Nationally Determined Contributions and 13 National Adaptation Plans of UNFCCC member countries, and found that countries are not attending to the intergenerational justice, child’s rights, and girls’ rights issues that are central to achieving action for climate empowerment amongst some of the most vulnerable groups to the impacts of climate change (Kwauk, et al. 2019). This suggests that those countries that are taking on CCEC are not doing so in a manner that addresses the psycho-social and transformative action dimensions of climate literacy that could unlock meaningful and impactful social responses to the climate crisis (McKenzie, 2019). In short, the vision for CCEC held by CCEC researchers and governments are not necessarily aligned.

But in addition to the importance of understanding how countries are attending to quality CCEC, there is a need to understand the extent to which CCEC is being provided--a question of how much countries are attending to the delivery of CCEC through different learning platforms. The 2018 study, however, found that only 30% of content analyzed was quantifiable and usable in national or intergovernmental benchmarking or as CCEC indicator data (McKenzie, 2019). No other large-scale international studies examine the question of provision of quality CCEC, and few single-country studies exist (Bieler, et al., 2018; Blum et al., 2013; Government of Canada, 2014; Henderson, Bieler, and McKenzie, 2017). This lack of quantifiable data impacts our ability within the education sector and as members of the global community to hold countries accountable to the urgent need to deliver CCEC.

The research on which this presentation is based builds from the two studies above, recognizing the importance of scientific, psycho-social, and transformative action components of CCEC. Specifically, the presentation will overview preliminary findings from a two-year multi-country case study research activity aimed at documenting country provision of CCEC through formal, non-formal, and informal learning channels. The research aims to provide a baseline for understanding global provision of CCEC, and to feed into a potential set of country-level indicators for monitoring CCEC provision, globally.

Author

• Christina Kwauk, The Brookings Institution