As the COP29 Climate Summit in Baku ended, Laura Frigenti, CEO of GPE, is visiting Dubai to meet with Her Excellency Reem Al-Hashimy, Minister of State for International Co-operation and Tariq Al-Gurg, CEO of Dubai Care to support the UAE-backed Declaration on the Common Agenda for Education and Climate Change, the first global political acknowledgment of the critical link between education and climate change.
The Declaration was the UAE’s centerpiece initiative at COP28, seeking to put education at the heart of global climate action.
So far, 90 countries have signed the Declaration and more countries are set to endorse it, demonstrating the declaration’s accelerating momentum as an important tool for driving political commitment to education to combat climate change.
The signatories include the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Tunisia, Morocco, South Sudan, Somalia, Senegal, Nigeria, Cameroon, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, India, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Brazil, Canada, Australia and Japan.
"Under the UAE leadership, education took central stage at COP28 as a key pillar in climate action," says Ms. Frigenti. "Keeping this momentum is critical to fortify global climate action and help vulnerable countries turn their schools into infinite reservoirs of green learners who are humanity’s chance of surviving and reversing climate change."
The UAE, GPE’s first and largest donor from the region, joined GPE in 2018 with a US$100 million pledge. Dubai Cares, the first foundation ever to contribute to GPE, pledged $2.5 million in 2021, doubling its previous contributions to GPE in 2014 and 2018. The UAE is also a strong financial backer of the Green Climate Fund which launched a joint project with GPE at COP28 aiming to make education systems in vulnerable countries greener and more climate resilient.
Climate change is threatening children’s right to quality, safe and inclusive education as extreme weather events make it harder for children to complete their education without disruption and in safety.
Around half the world’s 2.2 billion children live in the most climate-vulnerable countries. In the last two years, over 400 million students faced extended school closures due to extreme weather. The majority of children impacted are from low- and middle-income countries, which are the least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.
School is where children learn how their everyday actions and choices affect the environment. It is also where they develop skills that will help the world transition to a greener and more prosperous economy. An additional year of education increases climate awareness by 8.6%. Yet, education remains overlooked in the climate policy agenda, making up less than 1.3% of climate-related official development assistance in 2020.
Laura Frigenti
Laura Frigenti is a senior executive with 30 years of experience in global development gained through her service in multilateral organizations, government, nonprofit, and more recently the private sector. Her senior roles at the World Bank, where she worked extensively in the human development sector, as head of the Italian development agency, and more recently as head of a large practice in a global consulting firm, give her a deep familiarity with the issues that GPE is trying to address and the global development space where its work is situated.