Roadblocks to quality education in a time of climate change

As a starting point for critical discussion among education and noneducation actors, this paper focuses on formal education spaces where coordinating local efforts across districts, states, and nations can have impact on a global scale. First, the paper illustrates why more attention to and investment in education as a means of reducing risk and increasing informed action to climate change is needed, lest the technofixes of today lack political will and localized solutions for sustained, collective climate change action in the future. Second, it describes the current policy landscape for education in climate action, and climate in education. Third, the paper presents five underlying challenges preventing the formal education sector from taking a more proactive role in climate action. These roadblocks can then become entry points for policy and action. Finally, the paper lays out three actions that education and climate actors can take to not only chart a roadmap for the education sector in climate action, but to generate a new set of game-changing rules.