Introduction excerpt from report – see here
Climate change and associated challenges, such as loss of biodiversity, are increasingly impacting societies, ecosystems and nature around the world (OECD, 2021[1]). The fact that human-induced (anthropogenic) climate change is underway is unequivocal. The Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, (2021[2]) confirmed that global surface temperatures were already 1.1°C higher than pre-industrial levels by 2021 (IPCC, 2021[3]); and, unless emissions are curtailed, we could face increased risks from more extreme weather events and ecological disruptions in the coming decades. Concerted action to rapidly reduce global emissions and to adapt to mounting climate impacts is thus important (OECD, 2023[4]).
The impacts of climate change are not only environmental but also profoundly social, cultural, ethical, political and economic. Communities with fewer resources to adapt, especially island nations – which are often those who have contributed the least to global emissions – bear the brunt of these changes (OECD, 2021[1]). As a response to climate change, several countries have committed to ambitious goals, such as the European Union’s target of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 (European Commission, 2019[5]), and Costa Rica’s National Decarbonisation Plan (Government of Costa Rica, 2019[6]). This impetus for countries to adopt such policies followed the historic Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015 by 196 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21).
Effective responses to climate change require innovation, policy coherence, institutional arrangements, and coordination across global, national, regional, and local levels (UNDESA, 2024[8]). In this context, education is essential to generate the social license for nations to meaningfully address climate change. Quality education can in fact provide the next generations of citizens with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to understand climate-related challenges and to support climate-change policies.
See also – Blog post April 2026 – here
