‘How can we live more sustainably?’ asks Bec Wakefield to her class of 4 to 5 year old from Down Hall Primary in Essex.  Bec is one of the world’s very first climate change teachers accredited by UN CC:Learn. A few months ago UN CC:Learn (hosted by UNITAR) initiated a new approach to climate change learning by associating with a UK based company (Harwood Education) with the aim to improve climate change literacy in the classroom by empowering teachers and students to better understand this issue and become part of the solution. EduCCate Global makes UN CC:Learn content more easily available to teachers to promote a revolution in the classroom. 

Supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), UN CC:Learn offers a pack of 5 free e-courses on climate change for teachers seeking to become climate change leaders. By completing five courses, teachers know that they have mastered all there is to know about the basics of climate change and join a growing global community of climate aware professionals. ‘We’ve not done enough yet to reach out the teaching profession’ said Angus Mackay, Head of the UN CC:Learn Secretariat. ‘The classroom is the new frontline in scaling up the response to climate change’.  

The EduCCate Global project works locally and builds by engaging teachers first.  Local politicians and decision-makers take notice.  Metro Mayor of North of Tyne, Jamie Driscoll, plans to have a UN CC:Learn accredited climate change teacher in every public primary and secondary school in his region. In an interview with The Guardian Driscoll said,

‘this is our opportunity to be the first region in the world to meet this UN sustainable development goal. It’s also a commitment to give every child a world-class environmental education, and to make such progress so soon is fantastic’.