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Reflections on COP29: Human Development and Education Highlighted as Key Priorities

By Dr. Amber Webb, Managing Director of SDG Academy

COP29, hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan, marked the UN’s annual climate meetings for 2024. This year’s event convened over 60,000 delegates from around the world as Member States attempted to re-energize the Paris Agreement and get the world back on track to meet vital climate objectives. Largely considered the “technical” COP, the event this year in Baku focused heavily on the finance and resource mobilization needed to keep the 1.5-degree emissions goal.

By the final days of COP, negotiating a new climate finance agreement became an arduous task as developed countries failed to commit the amounts necessary to rapidly expand renewable energy, the just transition, and the recently-established Loss and Damage Fund. The negotiations will need to continue, since the current agreement to mobilize 100,000 billion USD annually will expire in 2025 and experts estimate upwards of one trillion USD annually will be required by 2035. The outcomes of the “financial” and “technical” COP this year have certainly been lackluster in many respects, but some key successes still shine.

Most importantly, Monday November 18th, launched the “Baku Guiding Principles on Human Development for Climate Resilience.” The Baku Principles are a landmark initiative aimed to take a more holistic approach to addressing climate challenges. The principles are the first-ever COP Presidency initiative aimed at tackling intersectoral synergy and complementarities between education, health, social protection, and skills and jobs—with a special focus on children and youth.

The Baku Guiding Principles seek to enhance support for several human development related projects, including robust attention to the field of education. Through education, we have the potential to influence knowledge and perspectives in both this generation and the next. Importantly, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has emerged as a key facilitator of goals to combat climate change and environmental degradation while also encouraging economic growth and human development. Education is quite possibly our greatest tool for social transformation and lasting change. According to UNDP, “Healthier, resilient, better educated and skilled people are spurring innovative climate solutions and powering the green industries of tomorrow.”

Never has the time been more critical for a global education transformation. In a recent study, UNESCO estimates that nearly half of the 100 countries assessed lack any reference to climate change in their national curriculum frameworks, and fewer than 30% of teachers feel adequately prepared to address it within their local context. Alarmingly, 70% of surveyed youth express an inability to articulate climate change beyond general principles, coupled with anxiety about their future.2

To infuse climate-positive values and knowledge into schools, the idea of “greening” education has seen widespread support in recent years, particularly through UNESCO’s Greening Education Partnership (GEP). Across multiple pillars of work, education stakeholders are mobilizing to rapidly green schools, curriculum, capacity building, and communities. 

SDG Academy and CEMR/PLATFORMA Side Event

As part of this movement to green education and advance the Baku Principles, the SDG Academy hosted an official side event at COP29. The event, “Combating climate change across generations: Reinforcing global to local policy action for education,” sought to expose policymakers and other stakeholders to specific ways education is “greening” across global contexts. In partnership with the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), the event endeavored to inspire local action and policies that embrace education as a key lever for climate action.

During the event, a range of stakeholders—from top scholars to politicians—engaged on how to effectively translate global goals to a diverse range of local contexts. Dr. Pramod Kumar Sharma from the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) offered important insights on how UNESCO’s Greening Education Partnership is connecting to local schools through his organization’s Eco Schools initiative, while Quinn Runkle discussed the value of meaningful youth participation via her work at SOS-UK. Moreover, themes from the SDG Academy’s latest special issue journal on “Policy Perspectives on ESD” emerged throughout to frame the discussion and offer critical insights on effective implementation strategies.

Although COP29 had mixed success in establishing global support for financing our climate ambitions, the importance of the Baku Principles and emphasis on human development and education certainly cannot be overlooked. In this intergenerational effort to protect our planet and increase the health and welfare of people, we must remain committed to ensuring that climate-positive values and knowledge are widely infused across geographies and generations. Through the Baku Principles, the world has recognized this critical perspective and the immense potential of education, and the SDG Academy will remain a steadfast champion of these principles as we continue to grow the global movement for climate action and sustainable development.

Baku Guiding Principles on Human Development for Climate Resilience

  • Principle 1 – Align climate action with human development for a resilient future
  • Principle 2 – Enhance social dialogue, partnership and collaboration on human development policies for climate response
  • Principle 3 – Invest in integrating quality climate change education at all levels and regularly assessing student competencies to address climate change
  • Principle 4 – Build climate-resilient and low-carbon education systems
  • Principle 5 – Enhance support to greening skills, qualifications, and occupational standards for priority sectors
  • Principle 6 – Invest in entrepreneurship, innovation, and talent for the application of new and green technologies with job creation potential
  • Principle 7 – Promote integrated climate and health surveillance and early warning systems
  • Principle 8 – Build climate-resilient, low carbon health systems and health care facilities, including supply chains
  • Principle 9 – Prioritize children’s unique vulnerabilities in climate action, including through investment in climate-resilient and sustainable essential services
  • Principle 10 – Strengthen adaptive social protection systems to build resilience for all, especially for the most vulnerable
  • Principle 11 – Invest in solutions for communities and migrants affected by climate change
  • Principle 12 – Scale up public-private and innovative financing solutions to strengthen human development for climate resilience