In the Green Zone – Tickets are now available to book to attend Green Zone events at COP26. They are free of charge, open to the public and you can book up to 6 tickets at a time and over 3 days. You can see the full programme here. It includes: 12th November – ‘Glasgow meets New Orleans, Africa and the World: Climate Change Impacts Culture, Music and all of us’ by Tulane University of New Orleans; and ‘Hope Springs Eternal – A Sonic Landscape’ by Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. If you are unable to attend in person you can join virtually by subscribing to the COP26 YouTube channel.
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COP Explored – The latest I-SEE seminar at the University of Bath was given by Alyssa Gilbert, Director of Policy and Translation at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College. She talked about what will be discussed in Glasgow and who the key players are. If you want the essential background to COP26 and what’s at stake, this is a good place to start. A recording of the event will appear here shortly. Meanwhile, an article in The Conversation by Shelley Inglis, Executive Director of the University of Dayton Human Rights Center explores how COP events work.
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The Other COP – COP15 took place in Kunming last week. This is the latest in a series of COPs to focus on biodiversity. UNEP says: “Despite on-going efforts, biodiversity is deteriorating worldwide and this decline is projected to worsen with business-as-usual scenarios. The conference will convene governments from around the world to agree to a new set of goals for nature over the next decade through the Convention on Biological Diversity post-2020 framework process. The latest information from the organizer, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biodiversity, is online here. The Conversation has a comment.
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Launching OSW – Our Shared World was formally launched on October 20th. This is a network of nearly 100 organisations (including NAEE) seeking to advocate for and support the successful realisation of SDG 4.7 across England by 2030. Co-chaired by CoDEC and SEEd, OSW says that it’s a “directed network with distributed organisation involving a dynamic governance structure”. In 2021, the network is focusing on the first two of its objectives: shifting the narrative on the purpose of education, and sharing evidence about successful approaches to SDG 4.7. New members welcome.
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Teaching the DfE – Teach the Future’s Teach the Teacher campaign has been running across 20 countries throughout this month. The purpose of the campaign is to draw attention to the fact that governments haven’t reskilled teachers on the climate crisis. The campaign sees students from across the globe reverse roles with their teachers and provide lessons with up-to-date climate science which reflects the urgency of the climate crisis. On November 4th, Jodie (17) and Phoebe (18) will deliver Teach the Teacher to the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education, Susan Acland-Hood, in the Department’s Gen Z classroom at COP26. The event will be livestreamed to up to 10,000 schools across the UK through the Departments for Education’s official teams account.
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Hiding Away – The DfE’s under the radar Sustainability and Climate Change Unit is looking for case studies of schools working on sustainability issues. Please contribute them c/o SEEd.
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The Sky’s the Limit – COP26: In your Hands is a 30 minute documentary from Sky. It features six young climate change activists – Darielen, aged 15 from Brazil; Hannah, aged 17 from the UK; Kynan, aged 16 from Indonesia; Queen, aged 17 from Cameroon; Sophia, aged 15 from Canada, and 16-year-old Tamsyn, from Australia, who highlight the impact climate change has had on their corners of the Earth. As well as being available to watch on Sky Kids, Sky News and on NOW TV, the film will be available for streaming directly into every school in the UK on First News Education TV.
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“Brilliant” – At Tuesday’s Westminster Education Forum policy conference: Greening the curriculum – qualifications, curriculum design and implementation, supporting teachers, and progression routes into further study and employment, Tim Oates from Cambridge Assessment, described NAEE’s national curriculum documents as “brilliant”. You’ll find them here.
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GAIA planning – On September 14th, the GAIA 20:30 Biodiversity Campaign was launched. One of the first activities is a lesson plan competition. So, if you need a clearer idea of what a good lesson plan looks like, join this session with Prof Paul Pace from the Centre for Environmental Education & Research, University of Malta. Details here.
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Sustainability Awards – The DfE has announced the winners of the 2021 Education Estates®2021 Awards. The website says that the DfE is: “committed to sustainable development and we believe that it is vital for our schools to prepare our young people for the future. Schools are a perfect opportunity to engage the minds of our future leaders in developing sustainable ways of living. It’s important for them to understand the principles of what sustainability is, and what it means to be truly sustainable. Sustainability is not just about energy or carbon. Both play a key role but sustainability is also about people, air quality, travel, and physical and mental well-being. It’s about delivering change beyond the curriculum. We know that there are lots of fantastic examples across the estate where school communities are working really hard to drive sustainable practices in their day to day operations, to play their part and help to tackle the climate change challenge that we all face.”
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Educator Awards – The Worshipful Company of Educators has announced its 2021 Award Winners with a special focus on environmental education. Those successful include Gabrielle Back, an NAEE trustee, and SEEd CEO Ann Finlayson. Other winners are Donna Ashley, Kate Bygrave, Heather Greenwood, Mark Stead, and Brender Willmott. Congratulations!
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Garden Awards – Martineau Gardens has been awarded the Queens Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK. The Gardens supports volunteers on the therapeutic horticulture programme to look after the 2.5 acre free-to-enter community garden; many of the volunteers have mental health issues and learning disabilities. Hundreds of school children visit the outdoor classroom each year to learn about the environment, with many of these visits being sponsored through NAEE’s Kenrick bursary scheme. Congratulations to everyone at the Gardens.
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UK Net Zero Strategy – The government has published a policy paper on Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener. This sets out policies and proposals for decarbonising all sectors of the UK economy to meet the UK’s net zero target by 2050. It includes: decarbonisation pathways to net zero by 2050, including illustrative scenarios; policies and proposals to reduce emissions for each sector; cross-cutting action to support the transition. There’s a lot in the 400 pages, especially on technology. The initial response of the Committee on Climate Change is here.
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Meat and Milk – The Pasture for Life Association supports UK farmers who wish to feed their animals on pasture containing grasses, wildflowers and herbs as this is the natural diet of cattle and sheep. The Association says: “Many farmers now try to produce their meat and milk as quickly as possible, by feeding things like cereals and imported soya, with animals indoors much of the time. So animals are vanishing from our fields and the tasty, healthy, grass-fed food they produce is hard to find. Our farmers make the most of their pastures by keeping their animals out for as long as possible and feeding preserved pasture if they need to come inside.” More details here.