Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) aims to provide people with resources, knowledge and values that help them face challenges related to the environment, such as climate change or loss of biodiversity. ESD is a long process that extends throughout life, and that takes root in each of us from an early age: in our homes and at school.
According to UNESCO data, only 20% of teachers feel capable of explaining to their students how to act in the face of climate change. Some organizations such as Ecoembes are willing to make it easier for these teachers and provide them with means to help them in this teaching.
Sustainable development and SDG as a starting point
Sustainable development is a concept associated with the concern of the international community and world citizens about the link between economic and social development and its effects on the environment and the protection of the planet . This is how the General Subdelegation for Territorial Cooperation and Educational Innovation (SGCTIE) collects it. And with this focus, in the 1980s, the United Nations created a World Commission on Development and the Environment to meet the needs of present generations, without compromising the capacity of future generations. In this sense, the aim was to guarantee a balance between growth and protection of the environment.
For this reason, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is fundamental; provides the knowledge, skills and values needed to protect the planet and address environmental challenges. This initiative really arises as a necessity, in UNESCO’s response to the great changes that the world is experiencing. The interaction of the human being with the environment is putting our own survival at risk.
ESD continues to be a path, the path that helps us achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) planned for 2030. It is defined by UNESCO as “the global framework for the implementation of ESD in the decade 2020-2030 ″, with the aim of building a more just, sustainable and respectful world.
Therefore, with our sights set on 2030, and with the SDG agenda in the spotlight, the common goal of all must be the transformation of our way of interacting with the planet to change course and stop climate change. . Otherwise, the consequences can reach catastrophic levels.
For this, 17 objectives were established, focused on different sectors and activities, but with a common denominator, which is the fight for the care of the planet.
Educational systems aligned with the SDGs
Each citizen, at an individual level, also has a lot to contribute in the fight against poverty, human rights, inequality, climate change or gender equality. In short, each one from the scope of it can contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. There is even a “lazy guide to save the world” published by the United Nations, which aims to help us with this work.
Environmental education is one of the great tools we have in achieving the goals set by the 2030 agenda.
The 2021 UNESCO program “Getting every school climate-ready: how countries are integrating climate change issues in education”, states that “40% of teachers feel comfortable teaching climate change”. This may be a positive fact, but if we continue reading, he continues: “Only 20% are capable of explaining how to act”.
Committed from childhood!
Schools and educational centers, as well as environmental teachers , have a fundamental role in this regard, although it is not an easy task. 47% of the national education programs of 100 countries do not make any reference to climate change.
For this reason, Ecoembes, through its Naturaliza project, goes one step further to help and accompany teachers on this path and give them the necessary tools and skills , and thus help them introduce the environment into the classroom. As it does? Putting at your disposal tools that introduce environmental education in primary core subjects, in a simple and fun way.
