Ambassadors from Kenya, Ghana, Liberia and Tanzania this week discussed how to improve climate literacy among Africa’s youth and announced the launch of a toolkit for the campaign.
The campaign aims to push for climate and environmental literacy becoming a compulsory subject from kindergarten through to university level across the continent.
Clara Makenya, the representative for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Tanzania, said the programme had five priorities, namely climatic mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity conservation, addressing waste and hazardous chemicals, resource efficiency and environmental governing.
She said the UNEP had an education for sustainable consumption programme, which looked at teaching children, educators and policymakers about building a sustainable lifestyle.
The UNEP hopes to improve climate education by supporting policymakers with tools that enhance their understanding of the importance of education for sustainable consumption. The UN agency also aims to provide guidance on how to integrate environmental education into school curriculums and provide educators with the necessary tools and resources.
Derrick Mugisha, the regional director for Africa at environmental group Earthday.org, said climate and environmental literacy, combined with civic education, would create greener consumer markets and enable citizens to work with governments in a meaningful way to mitigate climate change.
The campaign also aims to tap into the African perspective of addressing climate change.
“We have to look at the climate crisis as a crisis of our own,” said Ezekiel Nyanfor, the founder of a youth network in Liberia that is working with Earthday.org. “We need an African approach to solve the climate crisis.”
Earthday.org is urging those interested in supporting or learning more about the campaign to visit its website, sign petitions and make donations.
