Guidelines for Climate Change Education (School-Enterprise Collaboration Version) Officially Released

Climate change is one of the major issues facing the world at present, and has a bearing on the survival and development of human beings. Education is an important force in the fight against climate change, an important part of strengthening climate action, and an important guarantee for achieving sustainable development.

According to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,“‘Climate change’ means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods”. Production and life, as the two main types of human activities, should both be important topics for learning. However, the current climate change education often emphasizes life over production, and “school-enterprise cooperation” will effectively change the current situation in practice and research, and promote the improvement of theclimate change education system.

Based on the review of existing results at home and abroad, under the guidance of many academic conferences and seminars co-sponsored and promoted by the Shanghai Municipal Institute for Lifelong Education (SMILE) and the National Research Alliance for Climate Change Education, guided by the Guidelines for Climate Change Education released on March 1, 2024, and rooted in the rich and diversified practices of school-enterprise cooperation in carrying out climate change education, Guidelines for Climate Change Education (School-Enterprise Collaboration Version)was finally formed.

I. Background and Necessity of School-enterprise Cooperation in Climate Change Education

In terms of the research environment, the world has entered an era of ecological priority and green development. According to President Xi Jinping, “Green development is the base color of high-quality development, and the new quality productivity itself is green productivity. It is necessary to accelerate the green transformation of the development mode, and contribute to carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.” Green productivity is a kind of “environmentally friendly” sustainable productivityand is also a key factor affecting climate change. It should be an important part of climate change education research.

In terms of the current research situation: on the one hand, green production and green living form a chain of actions for peoplein dealing with climate change, and because the former is the “input end” of the latter, it plays a decisive role. However, in the current climate change education, “green production” is often neglected, which leads to a deficiency of the climate change education content system. On the other hand, the current school-family-community collaborative education is often simplified as home-school collaboration. Even though the cooperative positions outside the school for climate change education have paid attention to the family and community, the value development of enterprises and their production has not yet been emphasized. Thirdly, a review of existing research findings reveals that while climate change education research has been increasingly emphasized, research results of school-enterprise cooperation are nearly zero, an important field to be pioneered and filled in.

In terms of research potential: how to realize Chinese modernization, which is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature? School-enterprise cooperation in climate change education will directly face this question of the times. The participation of enterprises in climate change education differs in nature from that of communities, families, government departments.Enterprises, with the attribute of creating economic benefits, will foster thinking about greater cooperation benefits. This is not only an exploration of the integration of green production into education, but also an inevitable exploration of the integration of green education into production.It has the potential to establish a ladder-type training model for climate-literate green innovators to meet the needs of current school education and future industrial employment, and to promote the co-prosperity of education and society in the collaborative process of educating people.

II. Basic Principles for School-enterprise Cooperation in Climate Change Education

1. Comprehensiveness: Climate change education is a series of complex interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral themes with extensive coverage and diversified contents. When schools and enterprises cooperate to carry out climate change education, its content should be designed to help learners understand the ecological environment system from multiple perspectives, and master the close connection and interaction between social production, the living environment and the internal elements of the latter.Learning approaches should be further integrated into the teaching of various subjects through interdisciplinary means. Additionally, thematic comprehensive activities, enterprise classrooms and social practices can also be organized to comprehensively infiltrate and innovate in the construction ofgreen schools, green curricula, green abilities and green neighborhoods,thus forming a new pattern for the comprehensive implementation of climate change education and the dissemination of sustainable developmentculture.

2. Practicality: Climate change education emphasizes learners’ embodied experience and encourages prompt climate action. School-enterprise cooperation in climate change education should enable learners to immerse themselves in production situations and education sites, integrate research, learning, innovation and application, build a climate knowledge system organically linked to production and life, develop green innovation ability in the process of jointly solving real climate change problems with schools and enterprises, improve ecological and environmental valuesthrough cross-boundary exchanges, and cultivate a healthy lifestyle that is in harmony with the natural environment in the process of innovation and practice. Furthermore, what should be avoidedis the disconnection between knowledge teaching and the practice of production and life.

3. Integration and sharing: Climate change education is a “great cause” for everyone, for humanity and for the future.But it requires everyone to start from the “small actions” of the present, and advocates collaboration, mutual benefit,joint construction, and sharing. Regarding the top-level design of the value, practice and evaluation systems for school-enterprise cooperation in climate change education, it is necessary to further strengthen the interaction and achieve win-win situation between schools and enterprises, between production and life, and between ecological benefits and economic benefits.In the process oforganization and implementation, it is necessary to promote the school-enterprise cooperation circle to collaborate with the families, communities, universities and governmental agencies, build a multi-dimensional collaboration network, create diversified educational scenarios, and promote the integration of resources, collaborative construction, and sharing of results.

4. Continuity: There is no standard answer to how to cope with climate change. Climate change education is inevitably open due to the diversity of subjects, objects, time, space, carriers and methods, relying on learners to generate new strategies for solving problems through continuous discussion and exploration. At present, school-enterprise cooperation in climate change education lacks relatively mature theoretical accumulation and practical referenceeven more, and it is also more necessary to rely on continuous innovation and sustainable innovation. In particular, it is necessary to face all people, emphasize lifelong learning, and pay attention to the construction of “whole school” and “whole enterprise” to extract the implementation path of “whole institution”climate change education, so as to achieve a more fruitful and longer-term benefits of climate change education.

III. Objectives and Content of School-Enterprise Cooperation in Climate Change Education

(i) Objectives

School-enterprise cooperation in climate change education follows the main idea of promoting interdisciplinary cooperation between the climate change industry and the academia.With the basic purpose of joint construction, sharing and mutual learning, it is committed to improving the content system of climate change education that integrates production and life, exploring the path for the implementation of climate change educationin a “whole organization”manner. In the process,it will further influence the families of students, enterpriseemployees, the communities they live, and the relevant departments, so as to promote the green transformation of production, life and governance, arouse the climate responsibility of more learners, update and enhance their corresponding values, ways of thinking, climate knowledge and action capabilities, and continuously disseminate a culture of sustainable development.

1. Based on the anthropogenic causes of climate change, school-enterprise cooperation in climate change education will clarify the relationship between green productivity and climate change education, and construct an all-element chain of climate change education that integrates production and life.

2. Based on the in-depth exploration, school-enterprise cooperation in climate change education will mutually promote the implementation of climate change education in an“all-school” and “all-enterprise” manner, and innovate the paths and patternsfor the co-education and co-governance of school, family and society.

3. Based on the perspective of lifelong learning for all people, school-enterprise cooperation in climate change education will develop green education partnerships among students, teachers, parents, enterprise employees and community members. Moreover, itwill promote the integrated cultivation of climate literacy among multiple subjects and the dissemination of the concept of sustainable development through mutual learning and co-creation in the process of jointly carrying out climate change education.

(ii) Content

Based on human factors affecting climate change, the content of climate change education, which covers knowledge and practices in all aspects of human activities is rich, systematic and complex. The following content can serve as a basic structure, which can be selected and adjusted by learners according to their interests and needs:

1. Status and Urgency of Climate Change

Concept and characteristics of climate change: the definition given by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change:“‘Climate change’ means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods”.

Status and problems of climate change: Climate change has far-reaching impacts on the geographic environment and human production and life, including higher temperatures, increased extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and damage to ecosystems.

2. Anthropogenic Influences and Responses to Climate Change

Science: Explain the scientific principles and mechanisms of climate change; Promote scientific literacy

Ethics: Emphasize the ethical responsibilities regarding climate change; Cultivate the sense of global citizenship and responsibility

Production and economy: Explain the relationship between science and technology, production and climate change, and the impact of climate change on the economy;Guide the formation of an economic concept that realizes sustainable development through green productivity transformation

Life and ecology: Analyze the relationship between consumption and living habits and climate change, as well as the impacts of climate change on life and ecology; Guide rational consumption and low-carbon living to cope with the health risks posed by climate change, to improve the quality of life, and to protect the ecosystem

Politics: Examine the impact of political decision-making on climate response; Promote political participation and institutional change

3. “Whole-Institution” Governance Practices of Climate Change

Interpretation of the content and implementation mechanisms of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement: Analyze the mechanisms of global cooperation, as well as the cases of local innovation and governance; Emphasize the relevance of emission reduction and adaptation actions;Reinforce the importance of monitoring and evaluation

Response and actions to climate change: governance measures for schools, enterprises, industrial parks, etc. to address climate change, including low-carbon management, integrated use of energy, development of green manufacturing, promotion of circular economy, emission reduction in buildings and transportation, and restoration or construction of new forestry carbon sinks

4. Transformation of Production Methods

Energy efficiency: Build a clean energy utilization and supply system, conduct research on renewable energy technologies and applications; Advocate sustainable energy development

Greenhouse gas emission management: Focus on greenhouse gas control and emission reduction strategies, as well as the carbon management system

Technology and equipment innovation: Acceleratethe intelligent innovation and green transformation of production technology and equipment manufacturing; Promote digital and intellectual integration forthe achievement of carbon peak

Circular economy and resource utilization: Promote the transformation of production methods to a circular economy; Improve the efficiency of resource utilization

Biodiversity conservation: Emphasize the relationship between biodiversity and climate change;Introduce methods of conservation

5. Lifestyle Transformation

Living environment awareness: Encourage active awareness of the environment; Promote sustainable lifestyles

Renewal of consumption habits: Guide green, rational and sustainable consumption; Promote the adjustment of industrial and production activities by changesin consumption demand;Reduce the carbon footprint

Sustainable choices in clothing, food, housing and transportation: Specifically introduce sustainable choices and practices in daily life

6. Technology Facilitation and Digitization

Understand the role of scientific and technological tools such as climate science, meteorological technologies and data modeling in monitoring, predicting and understanding climate change; Explore innovative applications of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data in climate research and solutions; Use digital tools such as climate simulation software and data visualization tools for climate data analysis and presentation; Explore the role of technological innovation in driving emission reduction technologies, clean energy and sustainable development technologies

7. Multi-Participation and Institutional Mechanisms

Concept of sustainable development: Enable learners to think about the concept of sustainable development in production, life and social governance; Clarify the development goals in the context of climate change; Introduce sustainability assessment tools to help learners understand the relationship between sustainable development and climate change

Ecological civilization rules and systems: Introduce policies, systems and rules in the economic and educational fields that protect; Promote ecological civilization and low-carbon production and life; Facilitate mutual reference and joint improvement

Cognition of regional actions: Guide learners to recognize the climate challenges in the region and understand the impact of climate change on production and life; Explore the linkage between school-enterprise cooperation and community organizations, local governments, etc.; Promote climate change solutions at the regional level and cultivate sensitivity to the community environment

Climate education at the regional level: Use the power of school-enterprise cooperation to help climate education activities in the region, including expanding the school-enterprisecooperation circle to cooperate with communities, organizing climate change themed activities, lectures, and study tours, etc.; Promote the mutual transformation and joint update of climate change response mechanisms and rules between universities and enterprises

8. International Cooperation and Global Vision

Understand the challenges of different countries and regions in addressing climate change through school-enterprise cooperationprograms;Expand the global vision of learnersthrough school-enterprise cooperation; Provide concrete cases and practices

Carry outinternational cooperation to promote cross-border collaborative learning for learnersand school-enterprise cooperationin climate change education

9. Key Role of Culture and Publicity

Emphasize the important role of culture building for sustainable development in schools, enterprises and other institutions

Emphasize the key role of education in raising social awareness and promoting school-enterprise collaboration in climate action

Explore the specific role of the media and online and offline social platforms in publicity

(iii) Structure of Educational Objectives and Content for School-enterprise Cooperation

IV. Paths and Methods for School-enterprise Cooperation in Climate Change Education

(i) Paths

1. Two-way Transmission. Firstly, schools transmit “green education” to enterprises, promoting the education of green production in enterprises. By inviting enterprise personnel to visit the school for exchanges and seminars, organizing study tours for students, teachers and parents, lecturing on research findingson climate change and promoting green lifestyles to enterprise employees andtheir families, schools enhance the educational value and “greenness” of the enterpriseswhen they  disseminate culture, introduce industries, recommend products, and carry out social welfare activities. Secondly, enterprises convey green productivity to schools, promoting the production-oriented green education of schools. Enterprises open up showrooms and other suitable venues, enabling school teachers and students to feel the charm of sustainable development needs and technological innovation in production and activity scenarios. They also organize brand building managers, engineers and employees to enter schools to carry out public welfare activities, product demonstrations, classroom experiences, etc., so as to enhance the quality of school education, and facilitate students’ career planning and the cultivation of their green-innovation literacy.

2. Two-way Integration. Focusing on climate change education, on the basis of resource sharing, complementary strengths and pooling ofwisdom, schools and enterprises will systematically and deeply build value, content, practice and evaluation systems for school-enterprise cooperation in climate change education, jointly innovate new paradigms and strategies for green institution construction, green curriculum development and green ability cultivation, promote changes in learners’ learning styles through interdisciplinary integration and project-based learning,and pursue the integration of educational, economic and ecological benefits, so as to provide effective references and experience for wider and longer-term school-enterprise cooperation in climate change education.

3. Regional Joint Construction. Efforts will be made to integrate school-enterprise cooperation in climate change education into broader fields and scenarios in the region. This cooperation will jointly develop with the government, enterprises, public institutions, the private sector, social organizations, etc.As a result, it will promote the implementation of activities and community-based learning centered around families, communities, more schools and enterprises. Besides, it will also provide practical opportunities and professional knowledge support to a wider range of people, including staff, students, parents (across generations), teachers, and community residents, etc., in order to enhance their practical understanding of climate change. Furthermore, through the digital platforms,it will facilitate the dissemination of learning outcomes and interactive exchanges so as to better target everyone, to cultivate the awareness and habits of green production, green consumption, and green living, and to expand the benefits of education and learning.

(ii) Methods

School-enterprise cooperation in climate change education advocates individual learning, group learning, mutual learning, project-based learning, experiential learning, inquiry-based learning, classroom learning, research and study tours, etc., and attaches importance to the real-world production and life, books, bases, videos, simulation software and other types of learning resources.

The educational process emphasizes providing targeted education based on the characteristics of learners. For example, for young people and children, it is especially emphasized that they should be aware of and understand this comprehensive and complex issue, acquire systematic knowledge and skills through formal learning, supplemented by non-formal and informal learning, and give full play to their leadership in project-based learning to motivate their parents and members of the society. For employees of enterprises, it is emphasized that they should be highly integrated with production, life and governance, unite their knowledge and actions to actively promote the green transformation of production activities, and they are encouraged to participate in climate change education and publicity activities.

Above are general suggestions that educators and learners can specifically refer to, adopt and update to develop the wisdom of school-enterprise cooperation in climate change education.

V. Evaluation of Climate Change Education Through School-enterprise Cooperation

1. Emphasize the formation of learners’ green innovation and low-carbon life literacy. Evaluation results are based on the changes in learners’ literacy before and after their participationin learning.

2. Emphasize the creation and application of contexts. Evaluation results are based on specific contexts of education and teaching, daily life, production and governance.

3. Emphasize data collection and analysis. Evaluation results are based on multiple types of data, with importance attached to feedbacks from learners, educators and enterprise personnel.

4. Emphasize the subject and method of evaluation. Evaluation results are based on multiple subjects, including self-evaluation, peer evaluation, teacher evaluation, expert evaluation, enterprise personnel evaluation, government department evaluation, social evaluation, etc. In addition, quality actions in the process will be transformed into rules and mechanisms in time to guarantee sustainable school-enterprise cooperation research and practice, and to call on more people to practice feasible solutions to address climate change through promotion of experience.

Research & Development Units and Authors:

Gu Huifen, Longhutang Experimental Primary School, Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China

Li Jiacheng, Shanghai Municipal Institute for Lifelong Education (SMILE) of East China Normal University

Li Hongbo, TEDA International School, Tianjin, China

Song Yuyan, Green Partnership of Industrial Parks in China

Publishing Units:

Shanghai Municipal Institute for Lifelong Education (SMILE) of East China Normal University

Climate Change Education Laboratory, East China Normal University

National Research Alliance on Climate Change Education