Why COP30 in Belém Must Place Children’s Education at the Center of Climate Negotiations
Mariana, a primary school teacher in Pará who grew up near the Amazon basin, wakes early to assess her classroom after a night of heavy rain. Her students’ textbooks are damp, the playground is waterlogged, and several families have temporarily relocated because of flooding. This personal vignette illustrates a broader reality: the climate crisis is not an abstract policy problem but a daily disruption to learning for millions of children.
Globally, education has been profoundly affected by climate-related events. In 2024, an estimated 242 million learners — from pre-primary to upper secondary levels — experienced interruptions in their education due to storms, floods, heatwaves and related hazards. Heat alone affected more than 118 million children’s learning in a single month that year. These figures demand that COP30 delegates in Belém treat education not as an afterthought, but as a central pillar of climate action.
When education systems are disrupted, the consequences extend far beyond missed lessons. Interrupted schooling increases the risk of long-term dropout, elevates child protection vulnerabilities, and compounds existing inequalities linked to gender, disability, displacement or poverty. For children like Mariana’s pupils, a damaged learning environment can mean fewer protective routines, less access to trained educators, and heightened economic pressures that push families to deprioritize schooling.
There are practical, evidence-based reasons to act:
- Continuity of learning reduces dropout risk and maintains child protection mechanisms embedded in schooling.
- Investing in education is cost-effective: evidence indicates that every USD 1 spent on education can yield up to USD 20 in GDP growth over time.
- Education builds resilience by equipping learners with knowledge and skills to anticipate, prepare for and adapt to climate impacts.
Despite this, education remains underfunded within climate finance. Between 2006 and March 2023, only 2.4% of disbursed funding from major multilateral climate funds supported projects with child-responsive components. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) have likewise often overlooked children: in the previous NDC cycle fewer than half met basic standards for being child-sensitive. This disconnect is unacceptable if the goal is to secure a just and durable transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient societies.
International actors are already sounding the alarm. Members of the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies, including Education Cannot Wait, have urged world leaders to put children’s education at the heart of COP30 discussions. Advocacy groups such as UNICEF, Save the Children, and Room to Read reinforce the same message: education is foundational to climate resilience, equitable recovery, and sustainable development.
What should delegates in Belém consider when reframing COP30 outcomes around education?
- Embed explicit education targets and indicators in NDC 3.0 submissions to measure progress for children.
- Increase dedicated climate finance for education that is child-responsive, gender-sensitive and inclusive of learners with disabilities.
- Support multi-sectoral programming linking education, health, child protection and social protection to address compounded vulnerabilities.
Finally, small, targeted investments in education can yield long-term social and economic benefits. For Mariana, resilience means not only a repaired roof and dry textbooks, but curricula that teach water management, community-based early warning systems, and psychosocial support after disasters. Making education central at COP30 will ensure that children like her students are not left behind when nations chart a climate-resilient future. Putting learning at the center of climate action is a moral imperative and a pragmatic investment.
Designing Climate-Resilient Schools: Infrastructure, Curriculum, and Teacher Preparedness
Designing climate-resilient education systems requires a threefold approach: safe infrastructure, relevant curricula, and empowered teachers. Consider Mariana’s school: a modest brick building with a corrugated metal roof that fails during heavy storms. Without retrofitting, the school remains vulnerable. Retrofitting combines simple engineering solutions — elevated foundations, improved drainage, heat-reflective roofing — with community-led maintenance programs to keep structures functional during and after shocks.
Curriculum reform is equally critical. Children need skills known as green skills: climate literacy, problem-solving, sustainable agriculture basics, and civic engagement. Embedding these topics across subjects ensures that learning remains relevant and actionable. Organizations like Teach For All and global coalitions support teacher networks that adapt content to local risks, ensuring that lessons connect to pupils’ lived experiences.
Teacher well-being and training cannot be sidelined. Teachers who are themselves affected by climate hazards may suffer from stress, displacement, or reduced capacity to deliver lessons. Investing in teacher training for emergency pedagogy, psychosocial support, and climate-related content is central to continuity of learning. For example, localized teacher cohorts led by nonprofits and ministries have piloted modular training that pairs pedagogical techniques with practical climate adaptation strategies.
Elements of resilient school design include:
- Physical measures: raised electrical outlets, flood-resistant materials, clean water supply and shaded outdoor learning spaces.
- Operational plans: continuity protocols, community shelters integrated with schools, and emergency communication systems.
- Curricular integration: age-appropriate climate education, experiential learning and community projects.
Case studies offer instructive examples. In coastal communities where saltwater incursions threaten school gardens, students collaborated with local NGOs to design raised beds and salt-tolerant crops, turning a curriculum module into a livelihood adaptation project. Room to Read has supported literacy programs that incorporate climate themes, showing improved engagement when content reflects local realities.
Partnerships are pivotal. Agencies such as the Global Partnership for Education, World Education, and Plan International often work with governments to scale proven interventions. The private sector and conservation organizations — for example World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and The Nature Conservancy — can provide technical and financial support for nature-based solutions like reforestation around school compounds, which both protect infrastructure and serve as outdoor classrooms.
Practical list of policy priorities for resilient schools:
- Mandate climate risk assessments for all education infrastructure.
- Create contingency funding for rapid school repairs after disasters.
- Develop national teacher training modules for climate-responsive pedagogy.
- Prioritize inclusive access for marginalized learners, including disability accommodations and flexible learning schedules.
Successful implementation requires monitoring and accountable financing. Donor coordination — for example, aligning education funding with climate adaptation grants — reduces duplication and maximizes impact. For Mariana’s region, a combined package of physical upgrades, teacher professional development, and curriculum updates would transform a vulnerable building into a beacon of resilience and community learning. Resilient schools are multipliers: they protect learners, strengthen communities, and sustain learning through crises.
How Financing Must Change: Targeting Funds to Child-Responsive Climate Education
Financing is the linchpin that determines whether ambitious policy statements translate into durable changes on the ground. Historically, education has been sidelined within climate finance. A stark example: between 2006 and March 2023 just 2.4% of financing from major multilateral climate funds went to projects with child-focused activities. This shortfall is not merely an accounting problem; it directly affects whether children can continue learning when climate shocks hit.
Shifts in funding strategy should prioritize three goals: predictable financing, child-responsiveness, and alignment with national education plans. Predictable financing reduces stop-start cycles that undermine long-term planning. Child-responsive allocations ensure that gender, disability and displacement considerations are mainstreamed into program design. Alignment with national strategies ensures that investments are scaled and institutionalized rather than remaining pilot projects.
There are clear cases for return on investment. Education spending has a multiplier effect across social and economic outcomes. Estimates indicate that every USD 1 invested in education can yield approximately USD 20 in GDP growth across a lifetime, through higher productivity and more resilient communities. For climate finance, this means channeling funds into education yields both humanitarian and development returns.
Priority areas for reallocation include:
- Repair and retrofit of school infrastructure to withstand climate hazards.
- Catch-up and remedial learning programs to address learning loss following disasters.
- Teacher training and psychosocial support for educators operating under chronic stress.
- Curriculum development that integrates climate adaptation and green skills.
Innovative financing mechanisms can complement traditional grants. Blended finance approaches, where philanthropic capital de-risks private investment in educational infrastructure, have proven effective in some contexts. Sports and arts initiatives often mobilize unique funding streams: for example, global campaigns, such as those linked to major sporting bodies, can be channeled to education projects; initiatives similar to the Global Education Fund concept can mobilize youth engagement while directing funds to school resilience.
Effective financing also means safeguarding resources for the hardest-to-reach learners. Funding must explicitly allocate for displaced populations, remote communities, and marginalized groups where climate impacts intersect with pre-existing inequalities. Local actors — community-based organizations, faith groups and local governments — are often best placed to deliver services; funding instruments should therefore include mechanisms for direct, flexible financing to local implementers.
Example from practice: a regional consortium pooled government adaptation funds with donor grants to construct elevated classrooms and train teachers in climate-smart pedagogy. The program included community cash-for-work components to maintain drainage systems around school sites, creating short-term livelihoods while addressing structural vulnerabilities. Such integrated packages demonstrate that well-targeted finance protects learning continuity and supports local resilience.
For COP30 negotiators, the implication is clear: increase earmarked education funding within climate adaptation portfolios, and design funding windows that prioritize children. Closing the current financing gap will not only preserve learning but will expand the capacity of future generations to participate in and lead climate solutions. Reorienting finance toward child-responsive education is both equitable and economically sensible.
Teaching Climate Knowledge and Green Skills: Curricula, Community Projects, and Creative Approaches
Curriculum matters. It is the bridge between policy and practice. When children learn about climate systems, risk reduction and sustainable livelihoods in age-appropriate ways, they become active agents of resilience. Take Mariana’s class: a project-based module on local water cycles led students to map flood-prone zones, interview elders about historical patterns, and design community posters about safe evacuation routes. These activities blend scientific understanding with civic responsibility.
Green skills extend beyond the classroom. They include technical competencies — such as basic agroecology, sustainable water management and energy literacy — and social skills like critical thinking, collaboration and leadership. NGOs and networks such as Green School initiatives, Room to Read and conservation partners collaborate to provide hands-on learning opportunities, showing how curricular content can translate into tangible community improvements.
Integrating the arts and sports can deepen engagement. Creative approaches, such as music, drama and visual arts, help students internalize climate messages and convey them to families and neighbors. Projects that combine arts education with climate themes have increased awareness and invite broader participation. For instance, school choirs writing songs about river stewardship can connect emotional resonance with practical action, an approach aligned with programs like arts-based education initiatives that harness cultural influence for learning.
Essential curricular components include:
- Contextual climate literacy tailored to local hazards and livelihoods.
- Practical adaptation skills such as watershed management and low-cost architecture.
- Life skills that include psychosocial resilience, teamwork and problem-solving.
- Community engagement projects linking classroom learning to public awareness campaigns.
Digital tools can support but must be implemented thoughtfully. While technology enables remote learning during closures, it also risks widening gaps where connectivity is limited. Addressing these inequities requires blended strategies: printed learning materials, community radio programs, and low-tech teacher-led radio lessons complement digital platforms. Critically, any digital approach must be sensitive to local contexts to avoid exacerbating exclusions raised in analyses of technological shortcomings in education.
Partnerships multiply impact. Organizations including Teach For All, World Education and Plan International offer teacher development programs that incorporate climate pedagogy. Conservation partners like The Nature Conservancy and WWF bring scientific expertise to school projects. Combining pedagogical know-how with environmental science yields curricula that are both pedagogically sound and ecologically robust.
For Mariana’s students, the classroom becomes a community laboratory: they monitor local water quality, plant native trees around the school compound, and present findings at municipal meetings. Such experiences transform learners into stewards and inspire civic participation. When curricula are anchored in local realities and reinforced by community partnerships, education becomes a powerful mechanism for climate adaptation and social inclusion.
Practical Demands for COP30 Delegates: Policy, Partnerships, and Accountability
As delegates convene in Belém, they must translate principles into concrete commitments that protect and advance children’s education. Policy pathways are available and tested. The third cycle of NDC updates offers an opportunity to embed education targets, align finance and report child-sensitive metrics. Delegates should adopt a multi-stakeholder approach, bringing together ministries of education, environment and finance, alongside civil society and child-focused organizations.
Key policy actions include:
- Incorporate explicit education provisions in NDC 3.0 submissions to monitor access, continuity and resilience.
- Allocate a defined percentage of adaptation finance to education; create child-responsive grant windows.
- Support Education Cannot Wait and similar funds to ensure rapid, flexible resources during emergencies.
- Promote data systems that track learning loss, school infrastructure status and child protection outcomes after climate events.
Partnership and coordination are central. UNICEF, Save the Children, World Education, and the Global Partnership for Education play complementary roles in scaling interventions and providing technical support. Local organizations and community leaders must receive direct funding and decision-making power, ensuring that solutions reflect lived realities rather than top-down prescriptions.
Accountability mechanisms should be built into every commitment. Transparent reporting, independent evaluation and participatory monitoring that includes students, teachers and parents will keep promises grounded. Examples of good practice include participatory school safety audits that involve students in assessing risks and shaping mitigation plans.
Practical list of negotiator priorities at COP30:
- Adopt binding language in outcomes recognizing education as core to adaptation and resilience.
- Establish a fund window for child-responsive climate education within existing multilateral mechanisms.
- Commit to technical assistance for curriculum reform and teacher training in climate-affected regions.
- Create a peer-review mechanism among countries to share best practices and hold each other accountable.
Concrete examples strengthen arguments. In West Africa, integrated programs that combine school feeding, climate-resilient agriculture training and remedial education have reduced dropout and increased household resilience. Lessons from such interventions should inform national and global policies. For stakeholders and advocates, resources like the Education to the Top briefing on children’s education at COP30 provide actionable framing and evidence for negotiations.
For Mariana and millions like her, outcomes in Belém will determine whether classrooms remain safe spaces for learning or become another casualty of climate failure. Delegates must prioritize partnerships, predictable financing, and robust accountability to ensure that education systems serve as the backbone of resilient societies. Prioritizing children’s education at COP30 is a decisive step toward an equitable, climate-resilient future.