UNESCO-IBE - transforming curriculum and greening education

In order to create just, healthy, and ultimately sustainable futures, learners will need to be equipped with the knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, and motivation to become a globally and locally minded and active citizens.

Education is an ecosystem, and IBE bases its action on a systemic, holistic, participatory, inclusive and endogenous understanding of the curriculum as the basis of this ecosystem. Working closely with educators, policymakers and governments, IBE supports States to transform or refine their curricula to help realize national aspirations.

IBE recognizes the role of the teacher as a key agent of change in a green transformation process - ideally placed to instill environmental responsibility and resilience, and to foster social, emotional and critical thinking skills. Understanding that the impact of the education ecosystem extends far beyond the individual to shape society, it is not just an opportunity, but a necessity to harness this potential as a powerful force for good.  

With this principle in mind, IBE has developed a Green and Blue Curriculum focused on supporting SDG 4.7 and the implementation of the Transforming Education Summit. This aims to fully mainstream climate education into all aspects of teaching and school curricula across educational levels and settings from ECE onward within life-long and lifewide learning perspectives; to at least double the number of countries that currently include climate education in school curricula from 45%. With this initiative, IBE will:

• Promote transformative interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning opportunities
• Support curriculum expertise capacity development with a focus on action in countries facing sustainability and climate education challenges  
• Support mainstreaming of transversal issues through tools and messages grounded in IBE’s knowledge base to inbuild green and blue topics
• Facilitate policy and technical dialogue so these transversal issues are embedded in national curricula

Concrete action will also include

1. A climate change study – UNESCO Member states will feed their syllabi into a database to detect opportunities and gaps in the treatment of climate change in learning content
2. Ocean literacy – IBE and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO joint efforts for supporting the mainstreaming of ocean literacy
3. Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and IBE will organize the first annual summer school dedicated to mainstream climate change into SIDS curricula
4. Provide focused capacity development for countries that wish to mainstream the Green and Blue Curriculum

IBE actively contributes to global environmental efforts through such agreements as the Berlin Declaration on ESD  and produces a wealth of knowledge products such as Curriculum and Learning for Climate Action.