Expert Consultation Meeting on "Construction of Climate Change Education Laboratory (Philosophy and Social Sciences Laboratory)"

Tocontinuously focus on new theoretical developments in climate change education, exchange new experience in climate change education practices, jointly build new cooperation networks for climate change education, and actively promote innovative development of climate change education, recentlythe Shanghai Municipal Institute for Lifelong Education (SMILE) hasbeen exploring and planning to build Climate Change Education Laboratory in response to East China Normal University (ECNU)’s call to establish Philosophy and Social SciencesLaboratories. This laboratory is aimed to strengthen organized scientific research based on interdisciplinary approaches centered on education, continuously advancing the integration of practice and theory in the "Climate Change Education" project.

On the afternoon of May 31, 2024, SMILE hosted an expert consultation meeting on the " Construction of Climate Change Education Laboratory (Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory)." Zou Rong, Chairman of the Shanghai Climate Week Executive Committee, along with relevant department heads from East China Normal University and China-UK Low Carbon Collegeof Shanghai Jiao Tong Universityand principals from several district-level universities for the aged, primary and secondary schools attended the meeting. Prof. Li Jiacheng, Executive Vice President of SMILE and one of the joint leaders of the laboratory, chaired the meeting.

The meeting began with a welcome speech by Kuang Ying, Deputy Director of the Faculty of Education of East China Normal University(ECNU). Director Kuang warmly welcomed the experts on behalf of the Faculty of Education and appreciated attention and supportfor climate change educationfrom all sectors of society. She pointed out that education plays a crucial role in global action against climate change, which is a major challenge the world is facing today.

With strong faculty resources and research capabilities in educationand rich disciplinary resources in Earth Science, Environmental Science, Sociology, Economics, and other related fields, East China Normal University(ECNU)has unique advantages in integrating relevant disciplinary resources and forming comprehensive programs for climate change education. This expert consultation meeting has provided a solid foundation not only for the laboratory’s construction but also for further research on climate change education.

Afterwards, Prof. Li Jiacheng, Executive Vice President of SMILE, reported to the experts on the preparations for the establishment of the laboratory. Prof. Li pointed out that, in the context of long-term research on education for sustainable development (ESD), the achievement of important research results, and the formation of an extensive international cooperation network,SMILE has sensitively captured the theme of “Climate Change Education”, which is of great practical significance, and has continued to organize and carry out local practice research and international comparative research on climate change education, and has devoted to the formation of climate change research results. At the end of 2023, experts from SMILE shared the results of Shanghai's climate change education with counterparts from all over the world at the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, demonstrating the mission and responsibility of educators of a large country in dealing with climate change issues.

At the same time, SMILE has also actively take its social responsibility by actively promoting the establishment of National Research Alliance on Climate Change Education through close multidisciplinary and inter-institutional cooperation, making unremitting efforts to build a more systematic and comprehensive system for climate change education. Up to now, SMILE has successfully organized three national conferences and officially released the Chinese and English versions of Guidelines for Climate Change Education, providing Shanghai cases and thematic curriculum resources for the Global Network of Learning Cities (GNLC), attracting widespread attention and recognition from all sectors of society. At present, SMILE is working to promote the publication of the Chinese and English versions of “Chinese Action on Climate Change Education” (First Series).

Mr. Zou Rong, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Shanghai Climate Week, first showed high compliment and affirmation of the work carried out by SMILE on climate change education. He expressed his deep impression of the successful “Climate Change Education Forum” organized in cooperation with SMILE on April 26 and sincerely appreciatedthe strong support from East China Normal University(ECNU) for the Shanghai Climate Week.

By sharing the development history of China-UK Low Carbon Collegeof Shanghai Jiao Tong University, he expressed the concern of all sectors at home and abroad for the cause of climate change and emphasized the importance of climate change education for sustainable development in today’s world. He pointed out that how to raise awareness of climate change and promote the practice of sustainable development through education, community participation, and international cooperation will be an important direction for climate change education in the future.

Regarding the construction of the Climate Change Education Laboratory, Chairman Zou also gave high praise. He emphasized the importance of education and proposed various methods to achieve this goal, including 1) developing unique methodological systems to contribute to the sustainable development of climate change education,2) flexibly utilizing various approaches to promote the spread of climate change education concepts at the social level, and3) building a common platform that gathers resources from all sectors of society to form joint forces to help advance climate change education. He proposed that Shanghai Climate Week and SMILE should join forces and cooperate closely, using the new platform of the Climate Change Education Laboratory to jointly promote the development of climate change education, launchthe  construction of Climate Community, develop international standards, and contribute Chinese solutions, wisdom, and strength to global climate change education.

Finally, under the leadership of Mr. Zou Rong, all the participants actively shared their experience in practice, pooled their wisdom, and enthusiastically and deeply discussed a number of topics, such as exploring the preparation for the establishment of a climate change education institute, formulating a group standard for climate change education, continuing to hold domestic conferences and international forum on the theme of climate change education, and forming a mechanism for regular exchanges and joint promotion of the work. The experts also put forward many valuable suggestionsand opinions, providing important guidance for the construction and future development of the Climate Change Education Laboratory.