Mission 4.7: Reflections on COP 27
Mission 4.7 is at the heart of ideating and putting into action UNESCO’s vision of Transforming Education. Following our Transforming Education Summit Ministerial Panel on Education for Sustainable Development and a practitioners’ panel discussing the role of social-emotional-learning, Mission 4.7 has been finding pathways at the policy and practice levels to make SDG Target 4.7 a reality. From our panel, it became evident that governments clearly see education for sustainable development as a key priority in their education portfolios. All learners need to be equipped with climate adaptation knowledge and require resilience, confidence building, critical thinking and other key 21st-century skills.
This momentum was continued at COP 27 in Sharm el Sheikh, where UNESCO continued its COP 26 emphasis on environmental education policy by hosting the inaugural meeting of the new Greening Education Partnership, a movement on greening schools, curriculum and communities. At its launch, the Partnership had more than 100 organizations listed as partners.
Mission 4.7 was proud to join a panel organized by EARTHDAY.ORG, where Professor Jeffrey Sachs relayed his deep interest in convening a youth panel on climate education. He also reiterated the importance of Mission 4.7 in influencing education policy, and its commitment towards UNESCO’s Greening Education Partnership.
To spread these important messages from COP 27 into schools and communities, Mission 4.7 hosted discussions via Twitter Spaces, highlighting COP 27’s daily themes and connecting them to the importance of education through Google Classroom. Topics included civil society empowerment, energy efficiency, gender, voices of the marginalized, water, gender, decarbonization, financing, and their links to climate education. We plan to continue these discussions on the first Friday of each month as a new Fridays for Future series.
The COP 27 Twitter Spaces conversations shared the perspectives of speakers live from Sharm El Sheikh and around the world. Speakers included Tashka and Laura Yawanawa, leaders of the Yawanawá people in the Acre region of Brazil, who voiced their concerns on the climate crisis; Dr. Livleen Kahlon, a climate education researcher from TERI India; Katre Olmez, Communications Lead at the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens; Vidya Bindal, an Eco Ambassador from Millburn High School in New Jersey, who relayed the demands from youth on what COP 27 should deliver; Cornell University students Alana Becker and Eve Fenningdorf; and Mr. De la Fuente, a 5th grade science teacher from New Jersey. These voices from the ground will help the Mission 4.7 Secretariat build strategies that resonate with the real needs of youth, educators, and advocates.
Recordings of the COP 27 Twitter Spaces series can be found at @Mission4point7 on Twitter.
As we plan for the future, Mission 4.7 will be encouraging more organizations to join the Greening Education Partnership and asking diverse stakeholders to share their thoughts via fora such as the upcoming Fridays for the Future conversations or our #WeChampion speaker series.
Mission 4.7 also grew at the local level, with the Mission 4.7 Malaysia project releasing an interim report of its review of the Malaysian ESD landscape; and SDSN USA’s Mission 4.7 Community of Practice releasing a call for proposals for a US Summit on Transformative Education, which will convene leaders in education from across the country. The Summit will channel the learnings from the UN Transforming Education Summit and the mission of re-prioritizing education in the national agenda after setbacks due to COVID-19 and mobilizing action on education for sustainable development, while showcasing various undertakings from leaders across the United States.