UNESCO Clearinghouse on GCED

17 Results found

Nature-based Solutions: Opportunities and Challenges for Scaling Up Year of publication: 2022 Author: Charlotte Hicks | Carolina Chambi | Hemant Tripathi | Katie Dawkins | Tania Salvaterra | Kollie Tokpah | Valerie Kapos | Hashim Zaman Corporate author: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are important for the global sustainable development agenda because they offer the potential to address, in an effective way, diverse challenges such as climate change, food and water insecurity, disaster impacts, and threats to human health and wellbeing, while reducing environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. Some of the challenges addressed by NbS, including biodiversity loss and climate action, cannot be fully tackled without this contribution. This does not mean that other actions, such as rapid decarbonization of our economies, are not also essential. This report: Outlines recent developments on NbS, with a focus on global, regional and national commitments, and key issues and concerns Builds on the new multilaterally agreed definition of NbS – agreed by the UN Environment Assembly in March 2022 – to set out key elements in the concept, provides examples of NbS, and discusses related approaches Provides recommendations for actions by governments, civil society and the private sector to substantially scale up the use of NbSThe report aims to inform NbS-related initiatives and discussions on NbS at global, regional, and national levels, with a focus on how NbS can be scaled up to more effectively address social, economic, and environmental challenges.

Higher Education, Peace & Security in the Eastern Africa Region Year of publication: 2023 Author: Sabiti Makara Corporate author: UNESCO Nairobi This paper stems from issues that were deliberated on at a regional conference titled, Emerging Issues in the Sciences, Climate Change, Peace and Security and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), organized in Djibouti, in May 2017 by UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa. The paper examines the issues and challenges of peace and security in Eastern Africa region. It puts into perspective higher education in the region, in terms of assess, quality, relevance, knowledge and skill products, and capacity to solve social challenges of society. The May 2017 Djibouti Conference on Higher Education, Peace and Security aimed at placing higher education at the center of understanding the complex regional challenges with regard to peace and security in a broad context, including poverty, climate change and environment, intergenerational transfer of knowledge, colonial/neo-colonial heritage, regional integration, cultural resources, and unemployment. The centrality of education as a tool for social transformation in Africa, and elsewhere is a critical element of transforming society, however that very element is up for debate. Specifically, the impact of higher education as a means of accelerating the sciences (natural and social sciences) is due for robust debate, as to whether or not, it is leading to innovations, creativity, and research-led solutions to challenges of society. The critical issue for the Djibouti Conference deliberations was: could Science, technology and in more recent years, information and communications technology, lead to transformation of society in the region? The other issue was: is it only the natural sciences that have the greatest potential for that transformation, or that the social sciences and humanities are relevant in this context? Besides, since issues of peace and security are complex, could multidisciplinary approaches be appropriate? This paper is not a rapporteur's report of the Djibouti conference. It is a set of reflection and reframing of issues for further debate and discussion.

Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: Simple Guide to Schools in Africa Year of publication: 2019 Corporate author: UNESCO This booklet aims to support educators in Africa to impart knowledge on climate change to students in secondary level education.

Emissions Gap Report 2024: No More Hot Air … Please! With a Massive Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality, Countries Draft New Climate Commitments Year of publication: 2024 Author: Anne Olhoft | John Christensen | William F. Lamb | Minal Pathak | Takeshi Kuramochi | Taryn Fransen | Joeri Rogelj | Michel den Elzen | Joana Portugal-Pereira | Neil rant | Jiang Kejun | Stephanie Roe | Chris Bataille | Kornelis Blok | Kelly Levin | Eleonore Soubeyran | Costanza Strinati Corporate author: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) As climate impacts intensify globally, the Emissions Gap Report 2024: No more hot air … please! finds that nations must deliver dramatically stronger ambition and action in the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions or the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal will be gone within a few years. The report is the 15th edition in a series that brings together many of the world’s top climate scientists to look at future trends in greenhouse gas emissions and provide potential solutions to the challenge of global warming.

Global Resources Outlook: 2024 Bend the Trend; Pathways to a Liveable Planet as Resource Use Spikes Year of publication: 2024 Author: Hans Bruyninckx, Steve Hatfield-Dodds, Stefanie Hellweg, Heinz Schandl Corporate author: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) | International Resource Panel (IRP) The world is in the midst of a triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution and waste. The global economy is consuming ever more natural resources, while the world is not on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. The scientific community has never before been more aligned or more resolute on the need for urgent global transformation towards the sustainable use of resources. This 2024 edition of the Global Resources Outlook sheds light on how resources are essential to the effective implementation of the Agenda 2030 and multilateral environmental agreements to tackle the triple planetary crisis. The report brings together the best available data, modelling and assessments to analyse trends, impacts and distributional effects of resource use. It builds on more than 15 years of work by the International Resource Panel, including scientific assessments and inputs from countries, a vast network of stakeholders in the field and regional experts. The report illustrates how, since the 2019 edition of this report, rising trends in global resource use have continued or accelerated. The report also shows how demand for resources is expected to continue increasing in the coming decades. This means that, without urgent and concerted action, by 2060 resource extraction could rise by 60% from 2020 levels – driving increasing damage and risks. However, this fate is not sealed. The report also describes the potential to turn negative trends around and put humanity on a trajectory towards sustainability. For that, bold policy action is critical to phase out unsustainable activities, speed up responsible and innovative ways of meeting human needs and create conditions conducive to social acceptance and equity within the necessary transitions. This includes urgent action to embed resources in the delivery of multilateral environmental agreements, define sustainable resource use paths and roll out appropriate financial, trade and economic incentives. The pathway towards sustainability is increasingly steep and narrow, and the window of opportunity is closing. The science is clear: The key question is no longer whether a transformation towards global sustainable resource consumption and production is necessary, but how to make it happen now. Addressing this reality, based on evolving concepts of a just transition, is an essential part of any credible and justifiable way forward.

Environmental Education Toolkit Guide for Latin America and the Caribbean Year of publication: 2023 Author: Eloísa Tréllez Solís Corporate author: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) The Environmental Education Toolkit is aimed primarily at teachers, multipliers and facilitators in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and aims to promote interdisciplinary approaches, with a view to the transversality of environmental education. In the new context of a post-COVID-19 health emergency world, this approach becomes more relevant and necessary to achieve a better vision and understanding of the relationships between humans and nature; between societies, cultures and with the ecosystems on which they depend. In the chapters that make up this publication, an approach is proposed through a methodological proposal for reflection and action, the Interdisciplinary Roundtables for Environmental Education towards Sustainability, whose main objective is to strengthen and complement the environmental education processes that are carried out both in educational centers and in community groups, from an interdisciplinary, transversal perspective and with systemic thinking.

Exploring the Use of Citizen-generated Data to Monitor Progress Towards Achieving the SDGs Year of publication: 2017 Corporate author: People's Action for Learning Network The 5th Annual PAL Network meeting was held in Xalapa, Mexico from 13th to 16th March 2017. The meeting was jointly hosted by Medición Independiente de Aprendizajes (MIA) and the PAL Network. The meeting provided structured opportunities for deep exploration of this year’ theme: ‘Power to the People’. The theme was critically explored by over 80 participants from more than 19 Global South countries in four different sub‑theme groups. Each sub-theme focused on a different aspect of citizen participation in conducting household-based learning assessments with a focus on value, potential and next steps.

Teacher’s Guide for Culture and Arts Activities in Schools Year of publication: 2019 Author: Beatrice Polato | Xavier Verhoest Corporate author: Comitato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo dei Popoli (CISP) | European Union (EU) | UNESCO | UK aid This guide was designed as a curriculum to be used by teachers and mentors who facilitate modules and sessions aiming at involving school children in the study of cultural heritage, peace, inclusion and gender equity through artistic expressions. It has been tested and used by teachers in 24 schools in Somalia between 2018 and 2019, involving a total of 48 teachers and about 700 children. It contains text in Somali for activities.

Education for Sustainable Development Policy for the Education Sector Year of publication: 2017 Corporate author: Kenya. Ministry of Education | UNESCO Nairobi This ESD Policy provides for the incorporation of key themes of sustainable development such as poverty alleviation, human rights, innovation, health and environmental protection and climate change into the Kenyan education system. It promotes competencies such as critical thinking, crativity and making decisions in a collaborative way.

OzonAction Education Pack: A Guide for Primary School Teachers Year of publication: 2006 Author: Fabienne Pierre Corporate author: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) This education pack contains an entire teaching and learning programme, based on basic knowledge, practical skills and participation, for students to learn about concrete and simple solutions to protect the ozone layer and safely enjoy the sun.