There are 2.4 billion children around the world today. Nearly half of those children live in countries highly susceptible to - and in many cases already experiencing – the effects of climate change.

Imagine being able to help a huge number of these children through updating, funding and implementing child-responsive climate policies. Imagine if every country in the world included education in their next climate commitments.

How many lives could be transformed? How many children could be supported with quality education delivering vital skills and knowledge to address and adapt to climate change?

Every five years, countries update their national climate policies – called Nationally Determined Contributions or ‘NDCs’. The next round of updates is being submitted this year, which include commitments that will be implemented through to 2035.

Children just starting elementary school this year will nearly be finishing school by 2035. Children born today will be 10 years old by then – right in the middle of their education, an education that must be resilient to the numerous shocks that extreme weather and environmental stressors will create.

Children’s education at the frontlines of the climate emergency

We know that there are schools all over the world with too many children per classroom, classrooms not built to withstand floods and cyclones, with no teachers with training on climate change, no contingency plans or resources on standby.

We know that when floods, heatwaves, cyclones or droughts occur, children’s learning is impacted. Their schools are closed, their routes to school too risky to traverse, their classrooms often damaged or destroyed.

During monsoon season, rain batters the classrooms so hard it can be impossible to even hear the teacher.

Schools are rarely connected to early warning systems, so often there is no warning of impending disasters and teachers and students alike do not have procedures in place or rehearsed safety plans to know what to do – schoolbooks and homework are washed away, along with details of children’s grades and progress.

Compounding the immediate impacts on learning, schools are often used as shelters for days or weeks on end, further curtailing children’s learning.

We know all this, and yet we also know the powerful role that education can play as a driver of climate resilience and action.

So why is education still overlooked when deciding climate policies?

Changing the tide for NDC 3.0

We’ve heard from ministries of education and environment of the many challenges they face in formulating education within climate policies.

Ranging from limited awareness of the potential role of education in climate change mitigation and adaptation, to limited coordination across relevant line ministries, to competing sector priorities, to the education sector simply not being invited to the table.

And this means education is overlooked in both climate action and climate financing. Education made up less than 1.3% of climate-related official development assistance in 2020 and was mentioned in less than 1 in 3 Nationally Determined Contribution plans.

2025 is an important year to change these statistics. Updated NDCs are due this year, and must deliver policies based on updated science, that are more ambitious, more innovative, drive further action, and engage more stakeholders.

What is more innovative and ambitious than supporting children with a policy that includes climate-smart education, that involves and capacitates the next generation to take climate action?

How can education ministries engage in the NDC process?

Through the Climate Smart Education System Initiative, Save the Children and GPE have developed new guidance outlining a step-by-step process to support the education sector in engaging in these processes.

The steps are straightforward:

• find out what’s in your current NDC
• find out who the stakeholders are and engage with them
• determine where you would include education
• identify key targets, indicators and actions
• identify if domestic financing is available and if not, how these activities could be funded.

The guidance also provides example for messaging, rationale for including education, indicators, and links to further resources.

There is always more that can be included and delivered in the NDC, so we also included a checklist to provide a framework to rapidly assess the level of inclusion of education in NDCs - in both the updating process and the outcome document itself.

It can be used by stakeholders to check which actions they may be able to take for NDC 3.0 updates.

There are excellent examples of countries systematically including education in their NDC. For example, Vanuatu’s NDC 2021-2030 includes an excellent table identifying key actions they will take to protect education and teach students about sustainable development.

By supporting education ministries to engage proactively in national climate change agenda-setting, this guidance aims to ensure that both the needs but also the powerful agency of learners, teachers and their communities are at the heart of climate action.

If done right, with the required resources, investments and capacities, climate-smart education can be a powerful lever in keeping the world on track to meet the Paris Agreement and avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change.