The session will pay particular attention to the role of higher education in bridging diverse sectors and key stakeholders to implement a whole-society approach to mainstreaming climate education towards net-zero by 2050. The consolidated outputs from the session will contribute to the new United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) initiative to develop a postgraduate degree specialization on the Paris Agreement on climate change, to be launched in 2023.

Objectives include:

• To initiate a high-level dialogue on a whole-society approach to climate actions towards net-zero by 2050, including school and adult education, community actions, industries and international organizations.
• To explore key factors supporting a whole-society approach by sharing relevant policy implementation, promising examples and initiatives in the whole-society based climate education and lifelong learning across generations from the member states and leading HEIs institutions.
• To establish multi-sector partnerships aiming to enhance UNU’s new postgraduate programme to be a whole-society driven climate education.

Participation

This event is open to attendees of the Transforming Education Summit. It will be streamed live on UN Web TV.

Programme

13:00–13:05 Opening remarks

• Xiaomeng Shen (Vice-Rector in Europe, UNU; Director, UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security)
• Stefania Giannini (Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO)

13:05–13:20 Framing presentation
What Bhutan can teach the world about being carbon negative

• Karma Galay (Officiating Secretary, Ministry of Education, Bhutan)

13:20–14:05 Panel discussion

• Part 1 – The roles of higher education from the perspectives of the panels’ respective sectors in transforming climate education and actions towards net-zero by 2050
• Part 2 – Key success factors in their respective whole society approaches to climate education and lifelong learning

Panelists:

• Markus Gonzalez (Undersecretary, Ministry of Universities, Spain)
• Youssef Nassef (Director, Adaptation Division, UNFCCC)
• Melissa Brown (Senior Director, Environmental Innovations Initiative, University of Pennsylvania)
• Brittany Vermeulen (RCE Youth Coordinator, RCE Greater Western Sydney)
• Philip Osano (Centre Director, Stockholm Environment Institute Africa, Kenya)
• Shinobu Yume Yamaguchi (Director, UNU-IAS)

14:05–14:25 Q&A

14:25–14:30 Closing remarks 

• Maki Hayashikawa (Director, Education 2030, UNESCO)

Speaker profiles

Information on the speakers is available to view or download.