Environmental Education’s Role in Society’s Transition to Net Zero

Sessions on education at the annual UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings repeatedly call for the formal, non-formal and informal education sectors to take concrete action in addressing emissions and the growing injustices for communities at the sharp end of the climate crisis. Since 2022, COP’s key messages, as outlined in the Glasgow Work Programme on Action for Climate Empowerment (UNFCCC, 2022), expressly set out to link the UN's SDG4.7 to 13.3 and foster the scaling up of actions. In simple terms, the programme’s goal is to ensure: all educators play their part in curbing climate emissions, primarily through redirecting what we learn about, and what they and their professional colleagues expect and model as what it means to be educated in the 21st century. In this presentation, I discuss examples of how green living can be encouraged through a range of environmental education perspectives and practices, such that their wider adoption could ensure every community is able to see - on its doorstep - role models, progress, and a hub of educational activity that is taking the net zero challenge seriously.