{"id":6536,"date":"2015-12-21T08:44:41","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T08:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6536"},"modified":"2015-12-21T08:44:41","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T08:44:41","slug":"the-paris-agreement-no-one-thought-much-about-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2015\/12\/21\/the-paris-agreement-no-one-thought-much-about-education\/","title":{"rendered":"The Paris Agreement \u2013 no one thought much about education"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are four references to education<\/strong><\/em> in\u00a0the Paris Agreement<\/p>\n

[1].<\/strong> Page 11 \u2013 In Section #83 of the\u00a0Adoption<\/em> section of the Agreement:<\/p>\n

\"Calls upon all Parties to ensure that education, training and public awareness, as reflected in Article 6 of the Convention and in Article 12 of the Agreement are adequately considered in their contribution to capacity-building.\"<\/em><\/p>\n

NB, there is also a reference to\u00a0training<\/em> in #84 and #86.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[2].<\/strong> Page 20 \u2013 In the preface to the Agreement (oddly called the\u00a0Annex<\/em>)<\/p>\n

\"The parties to the agreement, ... affirming the importance of education, training, public awareness, public participation, public access to information and cooperation at all levels on the matters addressed in this Agreement,\u00a0... have agreed as follows\u00a0...\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[3].<\/strong> Pages 26\/27 \u2013\u00a0Article<\/em> 11\u00a0of the Agreement<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Capacity-building under this Agreement should enhance the capacity and ability of developing country Parties, in particular countries with the least capacity, such as the least developed countries, and those that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, such as small island developing States, to take effective climate change action, including, inter alia, to implement adaptation and mitigation actions, and should facilitate technology development, dissemination and deployment, access to climate finance, relevant aspects of education, training and public awareness, and the transparent, timely and accurate communication of information.<\/em>\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[4].<\/strong> Page 28 \u2013 Article<\/em> 12 of the\u00a0Agreement<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Parties shall cooperate in taking measures, as appropriate, to enhance climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation and public access to information, recognizing the importance of these steps with respect to enhancing actions under this Agreement.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And there is one reference to learning<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n

[5].\u00a0<\/strong>Page 24 \u2013\u00a0Article <\/em>7 of the Agreement<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Each Party shall, as appropriate, engage in adaptation planning processes and the implementation of actions, including the development or enhancement of relevant plans, policies and\/or contributions, which may include:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

...<\/p>\n

(d) Monitoring and evaluating and learning<\/strong> from adaptation plans, policies, programmes and actions; ..<\/em>.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is no mention of ESD.<\/p>\n

................................................<\/p>\n

So, what to make of all this? \u00a0I'm tempted to say, 'not a lot' for the following reasons:<\/p>\n

In [1] \u2013 and in [2] which is really just a repetition of [1] \u2013 education and training are just cited as means to the end of capacity-building \"to take effective climate change action<\/em>\", and so must be seen as\u00a0instrumental rather than anything else.<\/p>\n

[3] refers just to \"developing countries\" <\/em>and their capacity building.<\/em><\/p>\n

[4] is not about\u00a0education, per se<\/em>, but about\u00a0climate change education. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

[5] is similarly narrowly focused.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We should not have expected much more, I guess, as this Agreement is all about Climate Change, and the UN decided not to muddy the waters by taking an holistic view. \u00a0As David Oldroyd\u00a0noted in a comment to me on an earlier post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Focusing the mind on 2 or 1.5 degrees is not to be sneezed at, but there are so many other neglected foci that need curricular attention and are equally if not more difficult to reduce to a simple number. I offer here a few: <\/em><\/p>\n

Natural World Stressors<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Climate disruption; sea level rise<\/em>
\n2. Pollution of air, water and land<\/em>
\n3. Depletion - fossil energy and minerals<\/em>
\n4. Depletion - fisheries, forests, soils, water<\/em>
\n5. Biodiversity and ecosystem losses (the planet\u2019s 6th Great Extinction.)<\/em>
\n6. Global epidemics of disease<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Machine\u2019 World Stressors<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

7. Global debt-based financial system instability<\/em>
\n8. Increasing inequality in wealth &amp; poverty (recently represented as the 1% and the 99%)<\/em>
\n9. Illegal migration; criminal global trafficking<\/em>
\n10. Regional ethnic, resource; religious conflicts <\/em>
\n11. Nuclear weapon proliferation<\/em>
\n12. Terrorism<\/em>
\n13. Urbanization; mega-cities (31 cities with over 10 million population)<\/em>
\n14. Cyber-warfare and internet fragility<\/em>
\n15. Uncontrolled artificial intelligence (AI)<\/em><\/p>\n

NOW THERE'S A CHALLENGE FOR EDUCATORS!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Actually, David's \"few\" is one of the better lists I have seen \u2013 more so than my last effort, I recall, and the division into 'natural' and 'machine' world stressors<\/em> I think many may find\u00a0helpful.<\/p>\n

Finally, here is a link<\/a> to what Graham Petersen has to say about all this in an Education International <\/em>blog post. \u00a0He seems to take a more positive view than do I, and makes noteworthy points about how the text changed during the negotiations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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