Developing skills for climate justice and equity

The sustainable way of developing climate skills is to exploit various types of education through formal, informal, and non-formal education by promoting training opportunities for various categories of people. There is a need to engage communities in different practical actions.

Bridging knowledge creation and dissemination about climate justice and equity

The current extent of climate issues calls for action by all individuals. In this context, education must play a cornerstone role. Climate change concerns should be present in all courses as crosscutting issues at all levels of education, from nursery to university. Through this exposure, students will gain width and breadth of knowledge on climate changes, learn what to do with that knowledge, and make connections within their careers and communities to take action.

There is a need to instil in students the knowledge, skills, responsibility, efficacy, commitment, and values that are all important qualities in a good citizen. This is where civic and community engagement comes in. Civic and community engagement involves collaboration with others to improve the community. It can be done through political or non-political means and by anyone, no matter their age. It can involve a wide range of actions, such as talking with a friend about a climate justice issue, volunteering with a community climate justice organisation, intervening in local administration and city councils, organising awareness events, and even posting on social media (Wang & Jackson, 2005).

For example, universities are critically important places of knowledge production, perpetuation, and dissemination. Therefore, during this era of climate change issues, universities are called upon to apply this knowledge capacity to advance systemic social change through research outputs and by producing agents of change in society. In fact, climate justice requires a community-engaged approach that expands beyond the individual institution of higher education (Kinol et al., 2023).

In the context of education, there must be good teaching approaches that help engage youths to act on climate crisis. They must be empowered for action through formal education and training that includes:

• teaching and learning that enables more young people to harness scientific knowledge to come up with innovative ideas and solutions in the face of the urgent and complex problems they are likely to face over their lifetimes
• empowering young people with creativity and critical thinking skills, thereby supporting them to be at the forefront of the green transition to inclusive low-emission economies
• developing creativity and critical thinking for climate action in the classroom: for example, by applying knowledge about restoring natural resources in learners’ environments and supporting indigenous communities to face climate issues
• using adapted teaching methods and aids that allow students to come up with climate skills — for example, skills to manage the impact of farmed animals on the environment, produce different models describing global warming, investigate the degradation of resources and design new approaches to recover them, and develop models of managing wastes and protecting wetlands

Promoting community-based action and awareness for climate justice and equity

It is important to promote a community-centred approach to climate action by ensuring representation, inclusion, and rights protection for those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. This is because the designed solutions in such a framework promote equity, protect their access to basic resources, and ensure that young people can live, learn, play, and work in healthy and clean environments. Therefore, it is necessary to:

• create new education, training, and employment programmes in emerging sectors tailored to the skills of the residents in their communities
• increase community involvement in decision-making processes, including those for environmental, conservation, energy, and climate mitigation and adaptation projects, other cultural activities, and adaptable information and services
• adopt stronger policies that promote meaningful involvement and due process for vulnerable communities
• organise public meetings on environmental/climate justice issues to gather public input as a baseline of communication and participation
• provide technical support and capacity building to local governments and community groups representing disadvantaged communities for them to implement climate actions
• create opportunities for all people to increase their knowledge about climate issues