A delegation from Earth Day Network, the team that organizes the annual Earth Day events, will take part in the UN Climate Conference (COP25) in Madrid, Spain in order to promote stepped-up climate action in 2020.

A key focus of the Earth Day 2020 team’s engagement at COP25 will be on climate and environmental education as a central policy for raising ambition in support of urgent national and international efforts.

A global survey of citizens carried out by Worldwide Views with support from partners including the Government of France and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, found education topped citizens’ views in just under 100 countries as the key to change.

The survey was released just prior to the UN Climate Conference in Paris in 2015 where the landmark, universal, climate change agreement was forged.

Earth Day Network, which has promoted environmental education since its inception in 1970, believes the momentum is now underway to realize this key goal.

The Government of Italy, for example, has just announced it will make climate education compulsory in secondary schools in 2020. Governments like Mexico are also powering ahead with new plans to make environmental education central to its sustainability plans.

Pakistan is another nation embracing environmental and climate education focusing first on Islamabad with plans to roll it out across the country over the coming years.

Kathleen Roger, Earth Day Network President, said: “The latest science, released prior to COP25, is clear—without urgent action the world is heading for global average temperature rises well beyond what the planet and its people can take”.

“If we are to seriously get on track we need dramatic, scaled-up, ambition in everything from investments in clean, renewable energy to restoring the Earth’s natural systems like forests. Climate and environmental education also need to be a central pillar of national climate plans to equip a new generation with the truth, the reality and the solutions needed to make the dramatic changes in societies that will be crucial for success,” she added.

Among the many events linked with this new momentum will be a debate organized by World Environmental Education (WEE) and sponsored by the Earth Day Network Mexico and the Foundation for Environmental Education.

It will take place on Friday 6 December at 11 00 am as part of events by the Green Climate Fund at The GEF Pavilion. Speakers will include:-

 Iñigo Orvañanos – WEE & President of EDUCA Foundation;

Kathleen Rogers, President of Earth Day Network; and

Martha Delgado, Mexico’s Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights.

Earth Day Network is co-sponsoring a side event with the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), Action for Climate Empowerment: Connecting the Global Climate Crisis, Biodiversity and Ecosystems, which will take place Friday, 6 December at 11:30 – 13:00 in Room 4.  

On Tuesday, December 10, Earth Day Network has scheduled a press conference at COP25 for 11:30 am (tentative time) to present the latest, inspiring, government announcements with a call for new, national climate and environmental education plans to be put down by Earth Day 2020, 22 April, next year.

This also supports the call by Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine for nations to put forward their full, enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions by Earth Day next year.

Notes to Editors

April 2020, nature and the environment face enormous challenges from loss of biodiversity, pollution, degradation of our ecosystems, and climate change. For many reasons, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day will mark a pivotal year for our planet.

Our campaigns are intended to activate at least a billion people worldwide to meet Earth Day’s 2020 theme, climate action:

• EARTHRISE, an intergenerational global movement for climate action that will mobilize around the world on April 22, 2020
• The Great Global Cleanup, a worldwide campaign to remove billions of pieces of trash from neighborhoods, beaches, rivers, lakes, trails, and parks — reducing waste and plastic pollution, improving habitats, and preventing harm to wildlife and humans.
• Earth Challenge, the largest-ever global citizen science initiative, which will arm everyday individuals with the tools they need to report on the health and wellbeing of the environment, from their drinking water, to their air quality, to the species around them.
• Foodprints for the Future, a collaboration with individuals, communities, and partners across all sectors to address one of the largest contributors to climate change facing us today: our food system
• Artists for the Earth, a global campaign bringing artists from around the world in every discipline, using the power of their art to express our common humanity.

For more information see the additional resources listed here

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