Resources

The Climate Change Starter’s Guide provides an introduction and overview for education planners and practitioners on the wide range of issues relating to climate change and climate change education, including causes, impacts, mitigation and adaptation strategies, as well as some broad political and economic principles. The aim of this guide is to serve as a starting point for mainstreaming climate change education into school curricula. It has been created to enable education planners and practitioners to understand the issues at hand, to review and analyse their relevance to particular national and local contexts, and to facilitate the development of education policies, curricula, programmes and lesson plans. The guide covers four major thematic areas: 1. the science of climate change, which explains the causes and observed changes; 2. the social and human aspects of climate change including gender, health, migration, poverty and ethics; 3. policy responses to climate change including measures for mitigation and adaptation; and 4. education approaches including education for sustainable development, disaster reduction and sustainable lifestyles. A selection of key resources in the form of publication titles or websites for further reading is provided after each of the thematic sections. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) provides its expertise and know-how in areas such as education, culture, and the social sciences. In particular, UNESCO emphasises the role of education in support of climate change adaptation and mitigation in providing skills and capacities but also through shaping the values, attitudes and behaviours needed to put the world on a more sustainable path. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) works with countries to strengthen their ability to adapt to climate change, move towards low-carbon growth, reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, improve understanding of climate science, and raise public awareness of the changing climate. UNEP is supporting countries to seize the opportunities of moving towards low-carbon growth, while improving human health and well-being, generating green jobs and moving towards a green economy. With this publication, the two organizations have embarked on a collaboration on climate change education that we are committed to building upon and expanding in the period ahead.