The climate crisis is a children’s education crisis. Extreme weather events destroy or damage schools, learning materials, and vital infrastructure, making it difficult for children to keep learning. Multiple indirect effects on children’s education, including increased risks of malnutrition, disruption of livelihoods, and negative health impacts, inhibit children from attending school. Without immediate action to address climate change, the global learning crisis is likely to intensify; by the same token, quality education can in fact support climate action by boosting the resilience of students and their communities to adapt and respond to climate change.

On April 13, the Center for Universal Education (CUE) and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) will co-host an event at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. to help advance discourse on climate change and the education nexus. At the event, GPE will launch the Climate Smart Education Systems Framework, which outlines a concrete action agenda to strengthen the resilience and relevance of education to climate change and environmental degradation. Through channeling diverse voices on the topic—including youth leaders, a minister of education, other policymakers, and civil society organizations—the event seeks to foster a rich and inclusive conversation that not only brings each dimension of the framework to life, but also inspires new ideas and approaches to build climate-smart school systems. There will be ample time for Q&A during each fireside chat, and there will be time for networking and coffee in the half hour leading up to the event.