This report aims to examine the barriers to education as a result of climate change and climate displacement, taking into account the policy implications of heightened human mobility. The comparative analysis contained is based on research undertaken in four regions around the globe (Central America and the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific, South-Eastern Europe and East Africa). The key conclusion of the analysis is that climate change poses direct and indirect threats to the fulfillment of SDG 4 and the right to education in all four regions studied.
Source: UNESCO
This paper lays out four concrete ways in which governments can protect education systems from climate change so that their positive impacts on economic development, poverty alleviation, and social cohesion can be sustained and boosted. These are: (i) education management for resilience; (ii) school infrastructure for resilience; (iii) ensuring learning continuity in the face of climate shocks; and (iv) leveraging students and teachers as change agents. The paper presents an actionable agenda for each of these with operational examples in different contexts.
What are the impacts of climate crisis and climate displacement on education?
What can countries do to improve the preparedness and resilience to protect the right to education ?
Watch this Side Event at the 79th Commission Session of UN ESCAP jointly organized by UNESCO Bangkok and UN University - Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability at United Nations ESCAP on 17 May 2023.
In this general comment, the Committee on the Rights of the Child emphasizes the urgent need to address the adverse effects of environmental degradation, with a special focus on climate change, on the enjoyment of children’s rights, and clarifies the obligations of States to address environmental harm and climate change. The Committee also explains how children’s rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child apply to environmental protection, and confirms that children have a right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
In 2018, 17.2 million people were internally displaced as a result of natural disasters (IDMC 2019). Just one year later, in 2019, 24.9 million people were displaced due to natural disasters and extreme weather events (IDMC 2020). The catastrophic effects of climate change are no longer isolated emergencies, but have become the new global norm- a reality that is only intensifying each year. Yet the literature regarding climate change has little to no information on the specific nexus between climate displaced and their right to education.
Persons displaced by the effects of climate change face significant vulnerabilities with regard to accessing education: saturated school capacity, destroyed infrastructure, linguistic barriers, difficulties to have past qualifications recognized, discrimination, and more. This is why UNESCO commenced a new initiative: the Impact of Climate Displacement on the Right to Education. This is explored throughout this working paper.
This document provides an overview of the provisions of the international human rights framework linking the right to education with issues related to the environment and climate change.
Dans cette observation générale, le Comité des droits de l'enfant souligne qu'il est urgent de s'attaquer aux effets néfastes de la dégradation de l'environnement, et plus particulièrement du changement climatique, sur la jouissance des droits de l'enfant, et précise les obligations des États en matière de lutte contre les atteintes à l'environnement et le changement climatique. Le Comité explique également comment les droits de l'enfant prévus par la Convention relative aux droits de l'enfant s'appliquent à la protection de l'environnement et confirme que les enfants ont droit à un environnement propre, sain et durable.