25 February 2025

The Global Partnership for Education and Save the Children released a guiding document to support Ministries of Education and education sector partners to effectively engage in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to address the impacts of climate change. NDCs are national climate action plans developed by each country under the Paris Agreement. These contributions outline how each country plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to help achieve the global goal of limiting temperature rise to within 1.5 degrees Celsius and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Despite being recognized in articles of agreements formulated in climate negotiations since 1992, education has been a neglected sector in the conceptualization of climate strategies. Ministries of Education have often faced challenges in ensuring that linkages with education are made in national climate policies, and efforts over the past decade to enshrine education in national climate commitments have been limited.

Building on this, including education in NDCs is important to:

• Meet international climate finance requirements for national prioritization, thereby improving opportunities to secure climate finance towards education.
• Secure additional support, resources, capacity and finance from other sources for education.
• Guide national implementation of climate-smart education.
• Raise the profile and importance of education in climate action.

This guiding document is based on the principal that every child has the right to learn in a safe and resilient environment and gain the knowledge and skills they need to adapt to climate-induced shocks and stresses, take climate and pro-environmental action, acquire jobs in the green economy and become leaders for climate justice. And if these areas are included in NDCs, they are more likely to receive support from other ministries, sectors and international organizations, and align climate finance and action around key priorities.

It is worth noting that 2025 is when the third round of updated NDCs will be submitted. This means 2025 is a vital year for countries to scale up their ambition. Parties will submit their third revision of the NDC (NDC 3.0) before COP30. These new NDCs take us to 2035 targets.