The project partners met in Turin in the delightful hospitality of LABC on the 22^nd and 23^rd February 2023. In this day and a half of work, they reviewed the activities and progress made over the past months, analysing successes, critical issues and challenges that emerged in the different countries. The last activities to be completed before the end of the implementation period, with a focus on conferences and multiplier events, are scheduled in the coming weeks.

The Liverpool World Centre hosted a teachers’ workshop at Squash [a local social enterprise café and garden in Liverpool] where we shared some of the free resources available to schools. The aim was to help them run in school COP style conferences.  As part of this fun packed afternoon teachers took part in some active sessions where we modelled school learning activities form the Climate Action Guide.

We invited Kelly Mundy from Oxfam to speak about the impact of the climate emergency around the world and in particular the fact that ‘more than 44 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and South Sudan and over 28 million people are facing severe levels of hunger.’[ Oxfam https://www.oxfam.org/en/what-we-do/emergencies/climate-and-food-crisis-east-and-central-africa]. The problems being experienced are impacting the lives of many families with children. They are facing a rapidly changing climate characterized by erratic rains in the Horn, East, Central Africa where there has been a prolonged serious drought since 2021. There is so much evidence of the climate emergency impacting many lives and often causing displacement as people move in search of water and pasture.

Teachers were encouraged to use the resources from the I Can project as a way of including climate education on the school curriculum. The teachers were impressed with the active learning strategies and were keen to take the resources such as the briefing papers for a mock COP back into their schools to see their classroom impact. We look forward to hearing how this goes. Jacquie Ayre Global Learning Education Officer LWC

“People don’t realise that when they hurt the environment, they are also hurting themselves” – Ella-Rose, Dakota, and Emelia from Kings Meadow  School, Sefton UK .

LWC has been working on Merseyside to host mock UN style Cop Conferences as part of the I Can project. This autumn brought the 27^th Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Egypt, where the future of the planet was discussed between world leaders, a keystone event in driving collaboration against climate change. Whilst COP27 is primarily a discussion between members of the older generation, LWC wanted to bring the conversation to the generation that will be most strongly impacted by climate change throughout their lives. The actions of the conversations we have now will define the future of those currently in school, so it’s only right that their voices should be heard.

At  a recent event LWC worked with two Liverpool University Students who were on a  placement [ Linking learning about Science to society and civic duties]  These are some of their feelings and words after the event. 

We came over from the University of Liverpool and worked together with six schools from Sefton, using the I Can model COP27, at Southport Eco Centre. The six schools all representing different countries from around the world. They collaborated with each other to understand different ideas countries may have and what they could be doing to push each other to go further. The pupils identified that many emerging countries can only react and adapt to climate change whereas developed countries have the power to change conditions; a conversation that has been happening at COP27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh.

The pupils researched important issues for their specific countries, for example, the sea level rise in the Marshall Islands compared to pollution in cities of more developed countries such as China. They branched off into four groups to discuss four topics most relevant to their climate and issues: energy, cities, forests (and food) and oceans. We have put some the key points and recurring themes raised during these breakout sessions into a word-cloud:

The pledges the pupils left the conference with an agreement on were:

1. Increase awareness and education around climate change.
2. Share our skills and knowledge about climate change between countries.
3. Increase and develop technology to fight climate change.
4. Persuade governments to cooperate and continue working together.
5. Raise the amount of money for climate change solutions.

These pledges will be taken forward in the work schools do within their Eco Councils and sustainability projects in the future. One of the guest speakers encouraged eco-councillors representing their schools to utilise outdoor space, ask teachers to teach more about nature and get as many people involved as possible.

Pupils from one of the schools spoke  about the impact their eco council has within their school; “We are spreading awareness because it’s our generation that’s affected by climate change the most, and we are the ones who will have to live with it. Children learning from other children is the best way to spread awareness into our community.” Amplifying children’s voices is one of the most impactful things we can do in the battle against climate change; our future world leaders are learning how to speak up, ask important questions and demand answers. All change starts by initiating a conversation; not only are we initiating a conversation between pupils, but they will also then go home and initiate more conversations within their families, classrooms, and the wider community.

What we can take away from the day is that we all have a voice and ideas to contribute in the efforts to decrease climate change and that we can use this voice to put pressure on those in power and encourage more collaboration.  This is one of the very  positive impacts of  the  I Can project.

Baby 8 billion has just been born: ‘What will we say when baby 8 billion is old enough to ask, what did you do for our world, and for our planet when you had the chance?’

 

Written by:

Lily Eaton, 2^nd year BSc Biological Sciences student at the University of Liverpool and

Juliet Pone, 2^nd year BSc Marine Biology at the University of Liverpool

Last May and June, LABC was hosted by the technical High School Norberto Bobbio in Carignano (Turin) for a cycle of lessons dedicated to sustainability and to the topics of I-CAN project.  During the lessons, which involved students of second and third grade classes, LABC trainers presented the objectives and results of the project, and discussed important concepts such as climate change, sustainability and responsibility. The students felt involved and expressed their opinion in turn, creating a stimulating and original debate.

Moments dedicated to reflection and theoretical in-depth analysis have been mixed up with practical activities and experiential sessions dedicated to games, creativity and exchange of points of view, also following the methodology of the “Climate Action Guide”.

The lessons – specifically designed to stimulate the students to develop forms of critical thinking to be translated into actions aimed at sustainability and environmental protection- were so successful that they will be repeated in the autumn, in different classes.