Embedding Education in Climate Finance Will Deliver Desired Education, Climate Action Results – Global Issues
BAKU, Nov 20 (IPS) – Education is at risk as many problems keep children out of school and become dangerous. COP29 Baku may break historical barriers that delay education from playing a unique, important role to accelerate the desire for nationally determined contributions (NDCs) in the Paris Agreement, to protect people and the planet from the life-threatening risks of climate change.
“We are working with our partners, we have launched a pilot program in Somalia and Afghanistan, we are working with communities to identify early actions or expected measures to deal with the impact of climate and reduce its disruption in the lives and education of children in those countries,” it said. Dianah Nelson, Head of Education, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), a global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations.
In terms of embedding education in the climate finance debate, ECW hosted a series of COP29 side events on issues such as unlocking the potential for effective action through multi-stakeholder engagement; meeting the challenge of conflict, climate and education; climate change-resilient education programs in the most vulnerable countries; and protecting children’s futures: why loss and injury should prioritize education in emergencies.
The panel discussions brought together a range of public and private partners, policy makers, and data experts to highlight the benefits of taking action before predicting climate shocks to protect education. “Climate is an educational issue, and education cannot wait. Therefore, we need to focus on climate action in education and build the technology of climate smart schools. And most importantly, we need proactive action to reduce or eliminate the impact of climate change. Everyone has a role to play , and every child has an undisturbed dream make their dream come true through floods,” Adenike Oladosu, ECW Head of Climate and advocate of climate justice in Nigeria, told IPS.
These climate impacts are already being felt in Pakistan. Zulekha, advisor/program manager of Gender and Child Cell NDMA Pakistan, spoke about how the country has faced “the adverse effects of extreme weather. More than 24,000 schools were destroyed in the 2022 floods, and nearly 3.5 million children were displaced and out of school of them put us at risk. School Safety Framework.”
Oladosu spoke of the many, complex challenges facing Nigeria and that anticipatory action “means bringing tools, through climate finance, to reduce loss and damage. Anticipatory action addresses complex humanitarian problems in an urgent manner instead of taking action to reduce the impact of the shock before its worst effects are felt. “
He emphasized that anticipatory actions are important to avoid “irreplaceable losses, such as the number of days children spend without school due to weather events, those who fall behind in the education system, or those who leave the system and enter school. child marriages and military groups.”
Lisa Doughten, Director of the Financing and Partnership Division at OCHA, said that in social problems, climate change “is seriously disrupting access to education as schools are temporarily closed due to severe weather causing severe disruption to learning for millions of students. countries with conflicts and fragile situations, and and the climate crisis creates very difficult situations, especially for children and women.”
Doughten spoke about the need to use data to improve on unpredictable climate disasters and how OCHA is working with various partners, including climate organizations, to monitor and use climate data. Models are used that include pre-planned programs, pre-determined triggers for weather events such as floods and hurricanes, and pre-financing to ensure that funds are released quickly for anticipated actions.
At COP29, ECW reiterated the power of education to unite communities, build consensus, and transform entire societies. In the classroom of the future, children will gain the green skills they need to thrive in the new economy of the 21st century, and communities will come together to share early warnings and take action before climate hazards like droughts and floods.
Emphasizing that in this future class, “every generation of future leaders can create the desire and commitment to disrupt the status quo and create real, lasting solutions to this unprecedented and truly terrifying problem. Unfortunately, collective climate finance has not prioritized the education sector until now, which means that a small part , about 0.03 percent, of all climate spending goes to education Although children have a lot to offer in building long-term solutions to climate change serious, they also have a lot to lose.”
ECW says the link between climate action and education is also not significantly represented in the NDCs, or national commitments to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Only half of all NDCs are sensitive to children and youth, and this is an emergency, in 2022 alone, more than 400 million children were out of school due to severe weather.
According to the Global Fund, “on the front lines of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, this disruption will often take children out of the education system forever. In places like Chad, Nigeria, and Sudan, where millions of children are already out of school, ” ECW classrooms resist and disasters, for example, have increased enrollment rates in Chad.
Amidst Chad’s complex challenges combined with climate change, the climate-resilient classrooms whose construction was funded by ECW and completed in March 2022 meant that the classrooms were durable and accessible to children and youth with disabilities. These classes withstood the heaviest rain season in 30 years, which caused widespread flooding. Committing the necessary funds and working quickly and urgently means bringing solutions within reach.
Therefore, ECW says that an important step is to increase access to key climate finance-including the Global Environment Facility and the Green Climate Fund-and to use new financing methods to deliver finance with speed, depth, and impact, and that funding needs to be accelerated. , transparent, and fully integrated across humanitarian and development sectors.
Looking forward to COP30 in Brazil, ECW stressed that education should play an important role in the new Loss and Damage Fund. The loss of education caused by climate change is causing unprecedented damage to communities, especially in countries affected by conflict, displacement, and other humanitarian emergencies.
Reiterating that “losses and damages related to lost years of education may seem difficult to quantify. But we know that for every USD 1 invested in a girl’s education, we see a return of USD 2.80. And we know that education is not just a right it is a human right in the end, we need to ensure that The New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance includes a strong commitment to educating the world, not just the most vulnerable, but the millions whose lives are most at risk which are separated by a crisis that does not happen to them.
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
