Climate Literacy and Education

The climate crisis is a child rights crisis. It is the greatest existential threat of our time. The most vulnerable populations, including children, adolescents and youth with disabilities, adolescent girls and young women, are experiencing the impacts of climate change first and worst. Climate change exacerbate learning poverty and period poverty. Climate change magnifies inequalities and multiplies inequities, calling for systemic and innovative solutions that address underlying and intersecting vulnerabilities.  Young people are not only victims of climate change. They are also valuable contributors to climate action. They are agents of change, entrepreneurs and innovators. Whether through education, science or technology, young people are scaling up their efforts and using their skills to accelerate climate action. 

There is consensus among the world’s leading development agencies like the World Bank and UNICEF that climate literacy and education is a powerful antidote against the negative impacts of climate change, and have advised governments and communities to harness the power of literacy and education for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Despite global consensus on the importance of investing on  climate literacy and education,   governments have consistently focused their efforts on closing the emissions gap with little attention given to closing the climate literacy and education gap— the difference between the level of young people’s knowledge about, skills for, and attitudes toward climate change, climate action, and climate justice under “education as usual” and the level young people need to achieve community wide transformations for a sustainable, just, and equitable societies.

The total negligence of climate literacy and education in climate change policies and programming has disastrous implications for children, adolescents and youth and their communities as it not only jeopardizes the well-being of young people and the safety of their environment, but also misses the chance to reverse climate change impact with proper climate education and professional development. Climate literacy and education continues to be underestimated and underfunded. Investing in climate literacy and education better prepares young people to be climate resilient and adaptive.  Climate literacy and education for young people has the potential to raise their awareness and knowledge about harmful climatic effects.

The neglect and underfunding of climate literacy and education has deleterious consequences for young people. For instance, millions of young people in Kenya are not well informed about climate change and its effects on them and their communities. Climate change threatens all of children, adolescents and youth. But for young people living with a disability — an estimated 15% of the global population — the threat, compounded by discrimination, marginalization, and other pre-existing inequalities, is even greater. Existing evidence suggests that adolescents and youth with disabilities have limited access to knowledge, resources, and services to effectively respond to environmental change. Adolescents and youth with disabilities need access to disability appropriate education and information on climate change.  There is urgent need to need to educate and support young people with disabilities on what to do if a climatic event happens.

Climate literacy and education promotes learning among children, adolescents and youth about environmentally conscious practices that encourage changes in their attitudes and behavior and helps them to adapt to climate change-related trends. The provision quality climate literacy and education in schools, and out of school is a global imperative as it enables young people have the right information and appropriate skills, they need to make informed decisions and take individual and collective action against climate change.

A recent study conducted by UNESCO shows that young people demand climate literacy and education to understand and take better action on climate change and to help reconsider the human place within nature, through whole school approaches. Climate literacy and education encompasses being aware of both climate change and its anthropogenic cause, and thus underpins informed mitigation and adaptation responses. Climate literacy and education is the strongest predictor of climate change awareness. Young people should be fully empowered stakeholders in building climate resilience and creating a greener future. Climate literacy and education gives young people greater awareness of climate risks and more access to tools and solutions for addressing these risks and managing related shocks. Involving youth in Greening education infrastructure can help mitigate the impact of heat, pollution, and extreme weather on learning, while helping address climate change. There is urgent need for climate literacy and education programs especially for vulnerable and at-risk children, adolescents and youth in Kisumu.

Available evidence suggests that project-based learning (PBL) and Service Learning (SL) are effective approaches for climate change education. A recent study by UNICEF in Armenia shows that 90 percent of adolescents are willing to learn more about climate change through project-based and service-learning approaches. Project Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which young people learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects. They work on a project over an extended period of time – from a week up to three months – that engages them in solving a real-world problem or answering a complex question. Service learning is a form of experiential education where learning occurs through a cycle of action and reflection as young people seek to achieve real objectives for the community and deeper understanding and skills for themselves. It is an educational approach that combines learning objectives with community service in order to provide a pragmatic, progressive learning experience while meeting societal needs.

Better Futures for Children is committed to climate literacy and education. We work with donors, foundation, schools and community-based organizations to create transformative and climate literacy and education programs for in- and out -of school adolescents and youth in Kisumu. We are committed to ensuring that children, adolescents and youth (in school and out of school) in Kisumu City have access to high-quality climate literacy and education to support their conscious and informed decisions on climate change.  We use project-based learning and service-learning approaches and methods to build sustainable and action-oriented climate literacy and education. Project based learning enables young people to demonstrate their knowledge and skills on climate change by creating a public product or presentation for a real audience on climate change.

Better Futures for Children reinforces its Climate Literacy and Education programs with its Better Futures’ Project Based Learning on Climate Change Programs and Service Learning on Climate programs to enable young people develop in and out of school to deep content knowledge on climate change as well as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication skills. The Kenya Ministry of Basic Education is implementing the Community Service Learning.  Better Futures for Children works with partners including heads of primary and secondary schools in Kenya to integrate school-based climate change actions into their community service-learning programs. The integration of community service learning with primary and secondary school curricula empowers students to be more informed about climate change and to take active action against climate change impacts in their schools and communities. Our Project Based Learning and Service Based Learning programs unleash a contagious, creative energy among in-and out of school adolescents and youth on climate change.

Better Futures for Children is committed to helping adolescents and youth, especially adolescent girls and young women, and adolescents and youth with disabilities to take action to protect the future of our planet. We raise the voices of young people on the climate crisis and by increasing adolescents and youth participation to address climate change in Kisumu City.    We do this by training adolescents and youth on climate change advocacy to ensure that their voices are heard on climate change. One of the most important ways in which Better Futures for Children helps young people in Kisumu City participate in climate action is by supporting them to engage with leaders and decision makers on climate. We support adolescents and youth to advocate with their communities, the private sector, national and county governments on climate change. Advocacy is instrumental to build a better, stronger future for children and young people.

Better Futures for Children undertakes targeted studies to assess young people’s knowledge, attitudes and practices to climate change, especially the level of concern about the problem, and assesses the perception of young people about the importance of certain activities that may be crucial in the fight to reduce climate change, as well as their willingness to take action and be part of the solution to the problem. The climate change studies aim to provide data on which practices and activities are most common among adolescents and youth in Kisumu, but also aim to identify the underlying social attitudes and beliefs that prevent young people from effectively taking action against climate change. Our studies explore young people’s habits and means of information on climate change. We use the evidence generated by the studies to design effective, responsive and evidence informed climate literacy and education interventions and programs for youth and adolescents in Kisumu.