Climate action and literacy

The world is undeniably facing a climate emergency. As defenders of truth and science, teachers are mobilising for climate justice and literacy.

We are working to ensure climate change education is taught in schools across the world to equip students with the critical knowledge they need in their daily lives and to inform their choices as active citizens. We advocate for climate education to be integrated into curricula, initial teacher training and continuous professional development and for education to be recognised as a key tool in the fight against climate change.

Together with students, with the global trade union movement and civil society partners, we advocate for a just transition in order to secure workers’ rights and livelihoods as economies shift to sustainable production.

Our work in this area

News 4 November 2022
COP27 event | Quality climate change education for all: What is it and how do we achieve it?

November 9 | 17:00 to 18:00 EET

The world needs quality climate education for all. But what defines “quality” when it comes to climate change education? What does it look, sound, and feel like in the classroom and in communities? What impact does it have? And what steps do we have to take to make it a...
COP27 event | Quality climate change education for all: What is it and how do we achieve it?
News 19 October 2022
Education unions build power for climate justice

Last week representatives from education unions across the world came together online to share experiences, build power, and strategise to advance Education International’s Teach for the Planet campaign.
Education unions build power for climate justice
Research
Educators on a Heating Planet: Shaping Education Unions’ Vision for a Just Transition

Alanah Torralba
13 October 2022

Educators are on the frontlines of climate change: every day, they are contending with the worst consequences of changes to the world’s climate. From extreme hurricanes and storms to massive flooding, prolonged droughts, severe heatwaves, and sinking islands, climate change is already altering the education sector in indirect yet profound...

Educators on a Heating Planet: Shaping Education Unions’ Vision for a Just Transition
1. Summary of research findings
2. Research Report
News 27 September 2022
Teach the Teacher: Students and teachers join forces for climate education

The student-led Teach the Teacher campaign continues with a new round of events around the world. The campaign is focused on educating teachers about climate change, climate justice, and equipping them with the resources and confidence they need to implement climate education in their classrooms.
Teach the Teacher: Students and teachers join forces for climate education
Worlds of Education 22 September 2022
Education: the challenges ahead

Eirick Prairat

In his latest book, L'école des Lumières brille toujours (ESF 2022), Eirick Prairat presents the major challenges ahead for education. In this article, he discusses two relatively recent ones that have appeared in the last two decades: the post-truth challenge and urgent issues concerning our way of life. He also...
Education: the challenges ahead
Worlds of Education 9 August 2022
Including Indigenous identities and ways of knowing in education and science

Charitie Ropati

Engineers and scientists are vital to meeting Sustainable Development Goals but the ecological knowledge that Indigenous people hold when we care for the land are things that are central to the existence of life.
Including Indigenous identities and ways of knowing in education and science
News 8 July 2022
European educators reaffirm their commitment to enhance the status of the teaching profession for inclusive, peaceful, democratic and sustainable societies

Confronted with turbulent times for teachers, educational staff and their trade unions, delegates at the Special Conference of the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE), the European region of Education International (EI), took a pro-active stand and reasserted their will to mobilise and organise for quality public education, for...
European educators reaffirm their commitment to enhance the status of the teaching profession for inclusive, peaceful, democratic and sustainable societies
Worlds of Education 31 May 2022
4 alarming findings about education across countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions

Christina Kwauk

Last year at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (or, COP26) in Glasgow, Education International unveiled the Education International Climate Change Education Ambition Report Card . The Report Card featured my analysis of 95 updated, revised, or new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and their attention to climate change education as...
4 alarming findings about education across countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions
Publications
The pandemic - moving forward: Governments and teacher unions working together to leave no-one behind

A briefing by Education International for the International Summit on the Teaching Profession 2022
9 May 2022

Convened by Education International and the OECD, the International Summit on the Teaching Profession brings together governments and education unions in OECD countries in order to strengthen and support an informed and honest policy dialogue between and among elected representatives of the teaching profession and national government authorities.

The pandemic - moving forward: Governments and teacher unions working together to leave no-one behind
1. Download
News 2 May 2022
Iraq: Kurdistan’s educators advance climate change education

The Kurdistan Teachers’ Union (KTU) has called for the government of this Iraqi region to provide more funding and pay more attention to climate change and its impact on people. The KTU organised a series of informational seminars for its members during the national week dedicated to tackling climate change...
Iraq: Kurdistan’s educators advance climate change education
Video
Education in climate policies: Are countries in North Africa and the Middle East making the grade? (Arabic)
29 April 2022

This side event of the Middle East and North Africa Climate Week 2022 discussed the role of education in the fight against the climate crisis and how countries can step up their climate education ambition. With interpretation in Arabic.
Video
Education in climate policies: Are countries in North Africa and the Middle East making the grade? (English)
29 April 2022

This side event of the Middle East and North Africa Climate Week 2022 discussed the role of education in the fight against the climate crisis and how countries can step up their climate education ambition. With interpretation in English.
News 31 March 2022
Education in climate policies: Are countries in North Africa and the Middle East making the grade?

Official side event | Middle East and North Africa Climate Week 2022

Which countries are prioritising quality climate education for all? On March 31st, Education International presented our analysis of the extent to which education is included in MENA countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Education in climate policies: Are countries in North Africa and the Middle East making the grade?
Worlds of Education 21 March 2022
On the road to COP27, the MENA region is far behind on climate change education ambition

Christina Kwauk

Next week, the United Arab Emirates will host the first ever Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Climate Week . Many of the international delegates from last year’s COP26 will kickstart their journey to COP27 (to be held in November 2022 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt) by looking to the MENA...
On the road to COP27, the MENA region is far behind on climate change education ambition
Research
The Climate Change Education Ambition Report Card: Focus on the Middle East and North Africa

Christina Kwauk
21 March 2022

Conducted by Christina Kwauk, the Education International Climate Change Education Ambition Report Card examines the level of ambition on climate education and the extent to which countries prioritise education as a tool for climate action. This special edition of the Report Card focuses on countries in the Middle East and...

The Climate Change Education Ambition Report Card: Focus on the Middle East and North Africa
1. Climate Change Education Ambition Report Card: Focus on MENA
2. تقرير أداء طموح التعليم في مجال التغير المناخي
Worlds of Education 7 March 2022
Education – a crucial piece of the climate justice and gender equality puzzle

Susan Hopgood

For decades we have mobilised across the world and have worked towards gender equality, and increasingly over the last few years to address climate injustice. However, both fights have often been waged separately with far too little attention given to the critical areas where they overlap.
Education – a crucial piece of the climate justice and gender equality puzzle
News 26 January 2022
Canada: Educators take action on climate change education through ACTES

In the Canadian province of Quebec, teacher trade unionists are getting involved in the Centrale des Syndicats du Québec’s Movement for Collective Action on Environmental and Social Transitions (Mouvement ACTES-CSQ), which provides them with strong support for initiatives undertaken with their students on climate change education.
Canada: Educators take action on climate change education through ACTES
News 8 December 2021
COP 26 key outcomes: Why is this important for education unionists?

Alanah Torralba

COP 26, shorthand for the 26th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), was touted as the most important climate summit since the Paris Agreement was established in 2015. Owing both to mounting public pressure and the disruption caused by the Covid 19 pandemic,...
COP 26 key outcomes: Why is this important for education unionists?