Rewired – Last week, Teachers for the Planet launched a website with 100 global climate education solutions. Green Schools Project’s Zero Carbon Schools programme is featured alongside others from the UK. It was launched at the Rewired summit at COP28.
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Requires Improvement – The House of Lords Committee on Education for 11–16 Year Olds has published its latest report:Requires improvement: urgent change for 11–16 education. You can read a summary of the Committee’s findings and the full report. More information about the Committee and its inquiry can be found on the Committee’s website.
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Australian Insight – Prof Alan Reid, editor of Environmental Education Research, shares his environmental education insights on an eePRO video presentation. Click here to watch the video; and here to see what eePRO says about it.
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Learning about / through / for Net Zero – An NAEE blog last week explored what schools might do to help students learn about net zero and climate change. This builds on previous work we have done. It’s here.
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African SDGs – On December 6, 2023, GEEP Africa hosted a webinar which explored the challenges facing Africa and how education, social and climate justice, along with technology, can carve a better future for the continent. This also underlined the role of transformative education in the context of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals, shaping a roadmap tailored to Africa’s needs, particularly for its youth. The links you need are here.
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Youth Engagement Officer (Environmental) – The London Wetland Centre asks if you’d like to support them in making a real difference to the environment. If so, this might be the role for you.
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Communicating the Climate Crisis – UKSSN recently hosted Professor Alison Anderson from the University of Plymouth for a talk and discussion about communicating about the climate crisis. The talk was hosted by students from the London Schools Eco-Network and Surrey Environmental Action Schools Network. You can read more and watch the video here.
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Embedding Sustainability – The Harmony Project has created a booklet – Embedding sustainability in schools – for primary teachers and school leaders which outlines children’s progression in expertise and skills across six key sustainability themes: Energy & Climate Change, Biodiversity, Food & Farming, Cycles & Waste, Health & Wellbeing, and Adaptation for the future.
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For Climate Justice – Teach Climate Justice is a course for trainee teachers in England. Based on Oxfam’s Climate Justice classroom materials, and funded by Oxfam GB, this course is an opportunity to provide trainees with the space to explore this issue, and build their confidence to tackle the issues in the classroom in their careers. The course can be delivered inside or outside of your curriculum, face-to-face or online. See this flyer for more information, or book using this form.
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Climate Action – Green Schools Revolution has completed its first energy audit with students at The Polygon School, while working with students to help them develop their school’s Climate Action Plan. Teachers can sign up to be involved here.
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Outstanding Project – At the Global RCE conference in Kuala Lumpur, the partnership work of Learning for Sustainability Scotland was awarded two Outstanding Flagship Project Awards for Innovative Projects on Education for Sustainable Development. LSS also contributed to the Frontiers special journal issue on RCEs that won an Honourable Recognition Award.
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Achieving Sustainable Development – At the 78th session of the UN General Assembly’s Economic and Financial Committee, representatives of member states and the UN system came together to explore pathways towards achieving sustainable development. Details here.
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Greenwashed? – Unilever is under investigation by the UK antitrust regulator after claims of ‘greenwashing’ customers over its sustainability credentials.
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GDP and Emissions – Our World in Data says that historically, CO2 emissions have been strongly correlated with how much money we have, especially at low-to-middle incomes. The richer we are, the more CO2 we emit. This is because we use more energy – which often comes from burning fossil fuels. But this relationship no longer holds true at higher incomes. Many countries have managed to achieve economic growth while reducing emissions. They have decoupled the two. Take the UK as an example whereas GDP has increased a lot over the last 30 years, emissions have fallen.
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Unfossil Fuels – Synthetic versions of fossil fuels that don’t emit greenhouse gases are being developed say researchers at the University of Cambridge. Their project is informed by photosynthesis, using floating artificial leaves which can convert sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into fuel. Last week a Virgin Atlantic plane flew to New York using jet biofuel fuel. No paying passengers were carried. It will be a long time before every plan can do this, however, as the industrial infrastructure needs to be developed and there are doubts as to whether it will ever be possible to scale up the processes to the level needed.
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Protections for Nature – Fiona Harvey and Patrick Greenfield argue in The Guardian that fossil fuel phase-out will not avert climate breakdown without protections for nature.
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Dog Days – A historic victory for animal rights in South Korea, with the government banning the dog meat industry by 2027. It follows public and political momentum to end the trade that kills up to one million dogs per year for human consumption. There are details in World Animal News
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Our next news roundup will be on January 8th A happy Christmas and New Year to you all.