The climate crisis is a children’s education crisis. Extreme weather events destroy or damage schools, learning materials, and vital infrastructure, making it difficult for children to keep learning. Multiple indirect effects on children’s education, including increased risks of malnutrition, disruption of livelihoods, and negative health impacts, inhibit children from attending school.

Without immediate action to address climate change, the global learning crisis is likely to intensify; by the same token, quality education can in fact support climate action by boosting the resilience of students and their communities to adapt and respond to climate change.

On April 13, the Center for Universal Education (CUE) and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) will co-host an event at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. to help advance discourse on climate change and the education nexus.

At the event, GPE will launch the Climate Smart Education Systems Framework, which outlines a concrete action agenda to strengthen the resilience and relevance of education to climate change and environmental degradation.

Watch the recording

Speakers include:

Welcoming remarks

• Rebecca Winthrop, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Universal Education, Brookings

Youth leader presentations

• Manuj Bhardwaj, Founding Advisor, Nurture Nature Global
• Temilade Salami, GPE Youth Speaker, Founder and Director, “EcoChampions”

Launch of the Climate-Smart Education Systems framework

• Laura Frigenti, CEO, GPE

Fireside chats

• Moderator: Rebecca Winthrop, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Universal Education, Brookings
• Hon. David Moinina Sengeh, Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Sierra Leone
• Hon. Dr Hamad Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of Education, United Arab Emirates
• Manuj Bhardwaj, Founding Advisor, Nurture Nature Global
• Gwen Hines, CEO, Save the Children UK
• Hon. Dan Jørgensen, Minister for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy, Denmark
• Didacus Jules, Director General, Organization of Eastern and Caribbean States
• Mikko Ollikainen, Manager, Adaptation Fund Board Secretariat
• Temilade Salami, GPE Youth Speaker, Founder and Director, “EcoChampions”

Closing remarks

• Rebecca Winthrop, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Universal Education, Brookings.

Click here to register

Time: 09:30 – 11:00 ET / 14:30 – 16:00 GMT / 15:30 – 17:00 CET