Climate change and its impacts, including global warming and biodiversity loss, are existential threats. It is commonly believed that education has a critical role to play in climate change adaptation and mitigation. Yet a positive association between education attainment and unsustainable consumption levels, as well as inconclusiveness of much research on the direct impact of education on climate change adaptation and mitigation actions has contributed to education receiving low priority in the global and national climate change agendas.This needs to change. Education plays a clear, if somewhat underappreciated, role in developing professional capacities needed for the transition to a green, circular and regenerative economy. But this report also argues that climate change education needs to adapt to fulfil its potential. The education paradigm cannot rely solely on knowledge transfer but needs to focus on social-emotional, action-oriented learning. Research on which approaches work best needs to be scaled up to inform policy change. This report is the result of an ongoing partnership between the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report and the Monitoring and Evaluating Climate Communication and Education (MECCE) Project. It is the first in a new series of publications by the GEM Report aimed at advancing research and monitoring or the inter-relationship between education and other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For that reason, this report also explores concerns about climate change-related impacts on education development.
