Build Forward Better: How the global community can protect education from the climate crisis

Children’s increasing exposure to extreme weather events has serious implications for children’s access to quality education. 75 million children have their education disrupted each year – of which around half are due to environmental threats such as floods and drought. This briefing paper sets out how leaders can protect children’s learning from the impacts of the climate crisis, and the role that education can play in equipping the next generation with the tools they need to protect against its worst impacts.

As governments prepare to review their commitments to the new five-year cycle of the Paris Agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26), they must not overlook the devastating impacts of the climate crisis on education. This briefing calls for national governments – including ministries of education, social protection, health, and climate – donors, policymakers, development, and humanitarian actors to take the following actions:

• Support preparedness and anticipatory action in education systems
• Protect education from the impacts of the climate emergency
• Rapidly scale up finance for mitigation, adaptation, and anticipatory action
• Support child participation in education and climate policy decision making