Earth Day: Teachers from every corner of the world call for quality climate change education for all.

Ahead of this year's Earth Day on April 22nd, Teachers from across the world have called for quality climate change education for all.

Representing 32.5 million teachers and education support personnel worldwide, Education International launches worldwide campaign April 21st to ensure that climate education becomes as fundamental as teaching reading and writing.

Climate action is more urgent than ever and education is a powerful fundamental tool to catalyse it. If humanity is to avoid the worst consequences of global warming and fast forward the green, clean and sustainable societies of tomorrow today, it has to start at school.

This is why teachers across the world are coming together to ensure that quality climate education for all becomes a priority in every corner of the planet, and that governments commit to working with educators and their unions to make climate education as fundamental as teaching reading and writing.

Susan Hopgood, Education International President, said: “The fight against climate change must have an education face and a teacher’s voice in every area of the world. The planet is in crisis and I strongly believe that teachers and educators have a critical role to play in combating the environmental destruction, human suffering and social injustice that will certainly occur if climate change continues at current rates."

The event, in collaboration with Earth Day and its climate literacy initiative, will also introduce Education International’s Manifesto on Quality Climate Change Education for All. The Manifesto outlines the teaching profession’s vision for quality climate change education and the policy framework necessary to implement it.

The theme for this years Earth day is 'Restore Our Earth™', which focuses on natural processes, emerging green technologies, and innovative thinking that can restore the world’s ecosystems.

The theme rejects the notion that mitigation or adaptation are the only ways to address climate change. Earth Day urge that it is up to each and every one of us to Restore Our Earth not just because we care about the natural world, but because we live on it. 

More than 1 billion people in 192 countries now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world.

Find out how you can be involved in Earh Day 2021 here.

19 April 2021

Climate Action