Environmental education and climate change in a colonial context

Abstract

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was negotiated at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 to address the threat to human life and life on Earth caused by climate change. The convention entered into force on 21st March 1994. The 1977 Tbilisi Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education identified key objectives that allow learning for behavioral change and rejected the older model that presumes that increasing awareness of environmental issues (knowledge transfer) leads to behavioral change (Hungerford & Volk, 1990: 8). UNESCO suggested methods for integrating environmental education in schools via project-based approaches and student-centered learning techniques as well as civic engagement (Corraliza & Berenguer, 2000: 832; Fauville et al. 2014: 248). Article 6 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) proposes educational programs for training and public awareness on climate change and its effects. The years 2005-2014 marked the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) and climate change was one of the most essential topics covered globally. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) aims to empower the public to change the way of their thinking towards sustainable future (Anderson, 2012: 191; Mochizuki and Bryan 2015: 4). Yet, education must also lead to behavioral change among students (Karpudewan et al. 2017: 207) and it should engage people at the level of personal responsibility (Leal Filho, 2009: 6). UNFCCC set some guidelines regarding those1. Earlier studies demonstrate the values of well-structured programs for awareness leading to behavioral change especially in young people (see for example meta-analysis in Zelezny, 2010: 5). The national strategy for the State of Palestine also emphasized the need to develop environmental awareness and education to deal with the significant challenges facing the Palestinian environment especially Climate Change (EQA 2016; MOEHE, 2017).