1 Climate justice
This part of the course focuses on climate justice – a vital aspect of addressing the climate emergency, but one which is often overlooked in climate education.
Cripps (2022) explains:
Climate change does terrible damage: to today’s children and their descendants; to millions of already vulnerable people, the world over. Climate justice requires preventing that harm, making up for it as far as possible. That takes mitigation, adaptation and compensation.
The topic of climate justice can be covered in many different ways, in multiple sectors and across multiple subjects. Transformative action and learning is a particularly suitable approach for addressing climate justice. It can foster deep engagement with, and reflection on, our taken-for-granted perspectives of the world as a means of supporting fundamental shifts in how we interpret and understand the implications and injustices of climate change.
Box 1 Plant for the Planet
This is a statement from the Climate Justice Ambassadors shown in Figure 1:
As Plant-for-the-Planet Climate Justice Ambassadors we are part of a worldwide network. More than 67,000 children are already active as Climate Justice Ambassadors (as of February 2018) and spread our vision of climate justice and global citizenship to our schools, families and friends. Our common symbol is the planting of trees.
In the Academies, we children find out together about the climate crisis, distribution justice and global citizenship. More experienced children spread their knowledge to other children. Thus, we empower ourselves to become Climate Justice Ambassadors.
We show that everybody can take responsibility and can actively shape our future - by organizing planting parties, giving lectures and motivating others to join in.