Tag Archive for: sustainable development goals

Education for achieving Sustainable Development Goals

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The UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (17-19 May 2021) is organized by UNESCO in cooperation with and supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany, and with the German Commission for UNESCO as advisory partner.

This year the Conference wants to address the challenges the climate crisis and Covid-19 brought to the attention and equip learners with knowledge, skills, values and attitudes needed to contribute to a more sustainable world. In 2017, ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) was recognized by UN General Assembly as an integral element of the SDGs on quality education and a key enabler of all the other SDGs.

The goal of the Conference is to create a momentum for the new framework ESD for 2030 (that focuses on streamlining ESD with Agenda 2030) to achieve the SDGs within the next 10 years and to build education systems that support learners of all ages to be responsible and active contributors to more sustainable societies and a healthy planet.

The Conference will take place on a participatory online platform. The format of the virtual Conference will include interactive plenaries for debate and dialogue and concurrent sessions for in-depth discussion, online-workshops, virtual exhibitions and digital networking opportunities. Interaction will be key to the whole programme in order to provide a learning experience for all.

Further information on participation and how to register for the Conference will be soon available on UNESCO website.

In preparation of the UNESCO World Conference on ESD, you can participate to the pre-conference workshops to April 2021.

Survival: One Health, One Planet, One Future

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Planet Earth has been here for over 4.5 billion years but in just two human generations we have managed to place our only ‘home’ at great risk. Complicating things further, the author observes, we may be on a path where information or data is becoming more important than feelings – reality vs science fiction? Many lessons from history have not yet been learned and new lessons may prove equally, if not more, difficult to take on board as we head deeper into the twenty-first century.

This book highlights two of our greatest social problems: changing the way we relate to the planet and to one another, and confronting how we use technology for the benefit of both humankind and the planet.
Covering a wide range of key topics, including environmental degradation, modern life, capitalism, robotics, financing of war (vs peace) and the pressing need to re-orient society towards a sustainable future, the book contends that lifelong learning for sustainability is key to our survival.
The author argues that One Health – recognising the fundamental interconnections between people, animals, plants, the environment – needs to inform the UN-2030 Sustainable Development Goals and that working towards the adoption of a new mindset is essential.
We need to replace our current view of limitless resources, exploitation, competition and conflict with one that respects the sanctity of life and strives towards well-being for all, shared prosperity and social stability.

Toward a new worldview

There are no easy answers but, given the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), two fundamental changes are necessary if we are to survive in the coming decades: first, recognise the need to value and respect the interdependencies between people, animals, plants, and the environment (i.e., the One Health and Well-Being concept); and, second, shape through lifelong learning a new mindset – – transforming human attitudes: replacing our current view of limitless resources, exploitation, competition and conflict with one that respects the sanctity of life and strives towards well-being for all, shared prosperity and social stability.

Summarised in the Ten Propositions for Global Sustainability, the author challenges decision-makers at all levels – especially political and corporate – to take universal responsibility for the health and well-being of all people and planet – highlighting the criticality of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals – ‘to leave no one behind’ and to evolve institutions to serve human, ecological and future needs, much sooner than later.

Evidence based and transdisciplinary – and including contributions from the World Bank, InterAction Council, Chatham House, UNESCO, World Economic Forum, the Tripartite One Health collaboration (UN Food and Agriculture Organization, World Organisation for Animal Health and World Health Organization), One Health Commission and more – this book cuts across sociopolitical, economic and environmental lines. It will be of interest to practitioners, academics, policy-makers, students, nongovernment agencies and the public at large in both developed and developing nations.

George R. Lueddeke MEd PhD is an educational advisor in higher and medical education and chairs the global One Health Education Task Force for the One Health Commission and the One Health Initiative. He has published widely on educational transformation, innovation and leadership and been invited as a plenary speaker to different corners of the world.

Unep and Unesco patronage to the 10WEEC

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The WEEC Permanent Secretariat is very proud to announce that UNESCO and UNEP agencies gave – once again – their patronage to the World Environmental Education Congress, that will be held in Bangkok  from 3 to 7 November 2019.

The esteem shown by these authoritative institutions for our Congress and for our work is renewed. The commitment that our Network demonstrates, in continuing to pursue the issues of environmental education and sustainability, is carefully viewed by the main institutions of the United Nations. Let’s move forward in our commitment to support the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.

Unesco and UN Environment have several teams interested in organising workshops and side events during the WEEC Congress in Bangkok, to know more please read here,  the official program will be updated as soon as possible.

«l would like to congratulate you on the thematic focus of the 10th WorldEnvironmental Education Congress – can be read in the official Unesco communication – Namely to discuss local knowledge,communication and global connectivity with regard to their importance forEnvironmental Education. In this respect, thé objectives of thé WEEC are closely related to UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programme, which aims to empower individuals to contribute to sustainable development».

Madrid, Reinventing the horizon: science and art in the face of climate change

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Reinventing the horizon, that’s the title of the international symposium organised in Madrid,  April 18-19 by the Fundacion Ramon Areces .

A symposium to connect together science and art in a new interpretation of climate change. In the scenario of environmental destruction and uncertainty, it is essential to reinvent a horizon of hope. Humanity is now entering a new unwanted geological period – the Anthropocene – which is characterized by the fact that human beings are changing the vital cycle of the planet, altering its natural variability. Our species has become a force capable of changing some ecological processes, in an escalation of the primacy of cultural evolution over biological evolution.

Reinventing the horizon supposes co-evolving with nature and cooperating in terms of equity with the rest of the human species. But also recognizing ourselves as beings who dream, who imagine a sustainable future, capable of devising and carrying out the great revolution of change towards sustainability. We need ways of life in which the future is seen as a space of good living for all human species and respect for the rest of the world both living and no living. We need a hope that is not simply empty optimism but a commitment to the enormous creative capacity of the human being. A capacity that, as President Kennedy once said, is able to face every challenge.

The responsibility of scientists and artists is to generate new models of life in line with the Sustainable Development Goals promulgated by the United Nations. Thera are numerous and simultaneous drivers of global change: global warming, transformations in land uses, overexploitation of resources …, which has brought with it the destruction of ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity.

It becomes fundamental to seek solutions and creative proposals that allow us to glimpse new ways of organizing personal and collective life, respectful of the ecological integrity, the well-being of humanity as a whole and the dignity of every human being as unique and unrepeatable.

Among these problems, we have focused on human-induced climate change by its status as an epitome that synthesizes and expresses the irreversibility of some of these environmental phenomena of anthropocentric origin.  We have already started non-return processes, such as global warming, the melting of the Arctic, the rise in sea level … Processes that demand decisive action by the governments of the world to tackle the causes that generate them, mitigating its consequences and creating mechanisms of adaptation to the new historical circumstances that, in the present and in the immediate future, humanity must face.

What kind of knowledge is needed to face the enormous challenges we face? How to interpret the complex reality of a challenge that is new in the history of humanity? What role does Science play? And the Art, what clues can it give us?

With this philosophy, the Symposium wants to create a transdisciplinary space in which scientific analysis and artistic considerations converge will be able to articulate information, dialogue, imagination and creativity that are needed for the change, from the confidence in the innovative capacity of the human being. According to the words of the frontrunners, the future is on the way. Our responsibility is enormous. We are the first generation that is aware of this problem and perhaps the last one with capacity and time to solve it.

Mario Salomone, Secretary General of the WEEC Network, speaks on Thursday, 19. the title of his speech is Imagination and creativity in the Anthropocene: the role of education and art

Online inscription

 

Online Certificate on Education for Sustainable Development

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The Earth Charter Center for Education for Sustainable Development offers an online certificate programme on education for sustainable development, in collaboration with the UN Mandated University for Peace.
This Online Certificate Diploma is designed to provide participants with the understanding, knowledge, and skills to integrate Education for Sustainable Development and Education for Global Citizenship into classrooms, schools, and curricula with depth and creativity. It contributes to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, with a specific focus on SDG 4, target SDG 4.7 .

Specifically, this Certificate Programme seeks to:

Clarify concepts of sustainability, sustainability values and principles, sustainable lifestyles and responsible consumption; and global citizenship, as well as the synergies between them.
Deepen and expand knowledge about new paradigms of education associated with education for sustainability, sustainable lifestyles, education for global citizenship and transformative education.
Strengthen capacities and skills of the educators to integrate the values of sustainability in their areas of action, and develop educational programmes that promote a new awareness of our relationship with the environment and sustainable lifestyles.
Explore methodological and transforming pedagogical tools that can be used in educational programmes.
Motivate and inspire educators to contribute, through their areas of action, in building more coherent, harmonious, and sustainable societies.
Stimulate the exchange of experiences between educators from different contexts and regions.

The Certificate Programme has a duration of five months. It consists of four courses plus five seminars. Each course consists of five sessions (one per week). The minimum hourly load per participant is 124 hours, which involves 4 hours per week to read and see all the materials per session, plus the time for the seminars, and the preparation and implementation of a final project (individually or in group).

The course fee is US$1,300 (30% discount offered for groups of 3 or more. 10% discount in registration before November 15th, 2017, full payment only).

Read the program’s brochure