Climate crisis disrupting education of 40 million children every year

The United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has issued a report that draws clear linkages between the climate crisis and the global education crisis.

The report calls for continued efforts to ensure the continuity of education for all in the face of increasing extreme weather events and emergencies.

According to the report, worldwide, the climate crisis is impacting the education of 40 million children every year and in total, 222 million vulnerable girls and boys are impacted by conflict, climate-induced disasters, forced displacement and protracted crises and are in need of urgent education support.

Education Cannot Wait, the organization that issued the report, said that climate-induced disasters affect children’s ability to go to or stay in school. “And, even when children stay in school, climate and environmental changes – such as rising temperatures, droughts and floods – affect their ability to learn. These negative impacts on learning exacerbate cycles of poverty and inequality and drives conflict for increasingly scarce natural resources,” the report stated.

The organization stated that climate change and girls’ education are two of the UK’s primary international development objectives but that, “too often climate and environmental change is viewed in isolation from education.”

The organization stated that in order to effectively tackle these priority issues, we must better understand how they are linked and find integrated solutions.”

“Education must be put front and center of the climate agenda. By investing in girls’ education in places like Pakistan, the Horn of Africa and other countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis, we are investing in an end to hunger, and vicious cycles of displacement and violence. Education is also the single most powerful investment we can make to ensure a climate-resilient future for generations to come,” said Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait.