ESD for 2030 – Based on the lessons learned from the previous Global Action Programme (GAP), UNESCO has developed the ESD for 2030 framework and Roadmap. This is a global framework for the implementation of Education for Sustainable Development for the period 2020-2030. To support this global framework, UNESCO, with the support of the Japanese Funds-in-Trust (JFIT), is launching a new global network of education stakeholders – the ESD for 2030 Global Network (ESD-Net 2030). The network aims to become a platform for knowledge sharing, collaboration, mutual learning, advocacy and monitoring and evaluation among a wide range of stakeholders, including governmental agencies, civil society organizations, educators, youth, research institutions, UN partners, international development communities, among others.
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DfE Evaluation Opportunity – The DfE has re-launched the tender for the evaluation of the Nature Park & Climate Leaders Award Programme. The deadline is 23:59 on 30th September. To participate, you must be registered on Jaggaer. Further information about how to register be found here. You must also apply to be listed on the research and insights framework by accessing this link and navigating to the RM6126 Research & Insights DPS; here, click on ‘access as a supplier’ and complete your registration.
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Reporting Emissions – As part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Challenge, the Department for Education commissionedEAUC to develop a Standardised Carbon Emissions Reporting Framework for Further and Higher Education institutions. It did this in collaboration with sector bodies which include GuildHE, Universities UK, BUFDG, AUDE, and the Association of Colleges. This forms part of the DfE Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy. The Framework seeks to guide institutions on how to calculate and report carbon emissions and incorporates methodology guidance. EAUC is looking for feedback through participation in the Standardised Carbon Emissions Reporting Framework Feedback.
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Another ALB? – The Oak National Academy is an online classroom platform created in April 2020 by the Reach Foundationin response to Covid. It has 40,000 resources and provided around 3,500 hours of video lesson content during the pandemic. The DfE plans to change this to an arm’s-length body from the Department. ALBs, are public sector organisations which are independent from the government. Not everyone is happy about this owing to a lack of consultation as this letter illustrates.
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Earth Educator Awards – Sustainable Earth is an online sustainability resource created by Arizona State University. Through its Sustainable Earth Educator Awards it has recognised 19 educators from across the USA for their efforts in advancing sustainable practices through curriculum, activities, or other school-wide initiatives. You can learn more about the awards and two of their projects here. For more information, please contact Katelyn Armbruster (program manager for Arizona State University’s Walton Sustainability Solutions Services under the Global Futures Lab).
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Stubborn Optimists – The Great Imagining has a range of projects which it carries out in partnership with artists, scientists and experts and with cultural institutions. It is designing a series of immersive learning experiences with schools.
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Youth Curriculum Authors – The Ocean Foundation is trying to identify young writers between the ages of 13–25 to contribute to a youth ocean action toolkit focused on the seven Ocean Literacy Principles and Marine Protected Areas, supported by the National Geographic Society. More details here.
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STEM Learning – The Climate Change Educational Partnership is part of STEM Learning. It brings together partners from across education, research and the wider STEM sector to support the delivery of climate change related lessons and activities in formal and informal education settings. It aims to enhance educators’ subject knowledge and understanding, so that lessons are based on scientific evidence, and increase students’ understanding of the science and implications of climate change. If you’d like to find out more just contact: climate@stem.org.uk
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Child Mortality Rate Falls – The World Health Organisation says the global child mortality rate has dropped by 60% over the past three decades, with the number of annual under-5 deaths falling from 12.6 million in 1990 to 5 million in 2020. The leading causes of death are birth complications, pneumonia, diarrhoea, and malaria, all of which are now being treated with affordable interventions in health and sanitation.
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Celebrating Bats – International Bat Night has been celebrated annually since 1997 in more than 30 countries. This celebration of bats aims to raise their profile and quell some of the outdated and negative ideas about them. To celebrate International Bat Night, a number of events were held: from more traditional bat walks to story circles and bat-centred yoga classes. A full list of UK events is available on the Bat Conservation Trust website. You’ll also find an International Bat Night pack which includes bat facts, instructions for making a bat box, arts and craft projects and plenty of links to additional resources.
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Great and Terrible – A pipeline runs through it is a new book by Keith Fisher that chronicles the rise of the petroleum industry from its early days to the first world war. An Economist review said that it is a “immensely valuable guide to a great and terrible industry”.
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Plants are Layabouts – The same issue of the Economist has a feature on a genetic tweak that makes soya beans 20% more productive because it improves their ability to photosynthesise. It begins: “Plants are layabouts, and as such easily underestimated. They seem simply to sit there, growing or dying according to the roll of the meteorological dice, the appetites of herbivores, the caprice of pests and the skill (if they are cultivars) of their attendant farmers and gardeners. But their passivity is superficial. On the inside, plants are endlessly active. Their sedentary way of life requires it. They must continually adapt in their biochemical processes to changes from which animals can simply run, swim, slither or fly away.”
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#plantparenthood – In a Guardian Lifestyle article, garden guru James @Botanygeek Wong asks: “Is it time we ditched the word ‘gardening’?” He says that the term is loaded with cultural baggage and that there is a “growing body of scientific evidence [that] shows we don’t just like plants” – although he doesn’t say what that evidence is.
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Tomenni Glo Cymru – The Inkcap Journal had a July feature on biodiversity in Welsh coal heaps. The article notes that a single coal tip can support a wide range of habitats, from bare ground and flower-rich grassland to heathland, wetlands, and scrub. Rare insects such as the brown-banded carder bee and the dingy skipper butterfly forage in the diverse vegetation; lizards, slow worms and newts bask on sunny slopes and seasonal ponds; and unusual fungi thrives on the undisturbed spoil. But some biodiversity experts fear these hotspots of life may now be endangered, as the Welsh government plans to overhaul how it manages the country’s old coal tips in the interests of greater safety.