{"id":6603,"date":"2016-02-29T08:05:05","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T08:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6603"},"modified":"2016-02-29T08:05:05","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T08:05:05","slug":"even-unesco-now-talks-about-education-not-esd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2016\/02\/29\/even-unesco-now-talks-about-education-not-esd\/","title":{"rendered":"Even UNESCO now talks about education, not ESD"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNESCO is sidelining\u00a0its flagging ESD project. \u00a0Although its website recently had this headline<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Education for Sustainable Development placed firmly on the COP21 map<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

... it\u00a0was followed by this:<\/p>\n

\"The critical role of education in climate change was given the stamp of approval at the Paris climate conference COP21.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The full text is set out below. \u00a0In it,\u00a0despite the headline, the emphasis is on education, not ESD. \u00a0In fact ESD is only mentioned twice: [i] in the context of the GAP, and right at the end by a \"youth ESD leader<\/em>\" who has a vested interest in \u00a0doing so.<\/p>\n

See for yourself ...<\/p>\n

In negotiations to draft the climate agreement involving delegates from 195 countries, Article 8bis on education was the first agreed upon stating that \u201cparties shall cooperate in taking measures\u2026to enhance climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation and public access to information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Education for sustainable development, both formal and non-formal, was afforded an entire thematic day as part of the conference on December 4 when numerous UNESCO-supported events including discussions and interviews took place in a dedicated exhibition space.<\/p>\n

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, speaking at the event organized by French Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, in the presence of S\u00e9gol\u00e8ne Royal, French Minister for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, stressed there could be no sustainable development without education and called for reinforced mobilization to transform education systems.<\/p>\n

\"At the opening of COP21, 150 heads of state rang the alarm on the state of our planet. This must be translated into political decisions, into financial investments, and calls for a deep change in mentalities, in behaviours,\u201d said the Director-General. \u201cThis change happens through education, because education brings the skills and values that youth need to successfully manage the energy and climate revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Director-General also participated in the UN side event organized by UNESCO and other UN agencies entitled \u201cLearning to live with climate change \u00a0\u2013 \u00a0Accelerating climate change education and awareness-raising.\u201d\u00a0 She said that education was the red thread tying together the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and climate change action. \u201cTo succeed, we need greener societies, and fundamentally, we need green citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

She laid out three crucial actions to move forward: integrating sustainable development more deeply into national education systems; giving teachers the knowledge, resources and skills to fulfill their role as change agents; and creating stronger and more innovative partnerships, including with the private sector. She explained that UNESCO works with 13 UN agencies to promote climate change education; leads advocacy at global and regional levels, assists countries to integrate climate change issues in their education systems, and provides technical guidance, training and resources such as online training courses.<\/p>\n

As part of the day UNESCO organized five discussion rounds of 45 minutes each touching on the five priority action areas of the Global Action Programme on ESD (GAP): policy actors, whole-institution approaches, educators, youth and local communities. These were animated by UNESCO partners \u2013 experts, practitioners and youth representatives \u2013 from around the world with many visitors stopping by the UNESCO pavilion to engage in animated, interactive debates.<\/p>\n

The UN Alliance Side Event on Non-Formal Education and Innovative Approaches for Climate Change stressed the important of the generation born this century in effecting a major shift in thinking to make the transition to low emission, climate resilient development.<\/p>\n

Education is crucial in promoting the change in lifestyle, attitude and behaviour needed to and the side event showcased alternative approaches for climate change learning such as music, video games and social media.<\/p>\n

Nick Nuttall, Spokesperson for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said: \u201cThe number one weapon in delivering climate change is education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tariq Al-Olaimy, Co-founder of strategy consultancy 3BL Associates and youth ESD leader also praised the effectiveness of education for sustainable development (ESD) in changing people\u2019s minds and behaviour towards more sustainable ones.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

UNESCO is clearly now trying its best to focus on changing the nature\u00a0of education across the world, rather than \"introducing ESD\". \u00a0About time<\/em>, you might think; Fat chance<\/em>, might be another response.<\/p>\n

Sadly, it's stuck with ESD as an idea that's now just getting in the way. \u00a0It's also stuck with\u00a0well-meaning folk who still think that ESD is the answer \u2013 although they have lost sight of the question. \u00a0Such folk\u00a0all know, of course, that trying to change education systems is a thankless\u00a0task, and just prefer to do what they enjoy \u2013 even though it will make little difference. \u00a0T'was ever thus, of course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNESCO is sidelining\u00a0its flagging ESD project. \u00a0Although its website recently had this headline: Education for Sustainable Development placed firmly on the COP21 map ... it\u00a0was followed by this: \"The critical role of education in climate change was given the stamp...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6603\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}