Date: 01/12/2022

Relevance: GS-3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Key Phrases: Long-Term Low Emissions and Development Strategies, Lifestyle for Environment, Fostering of green economy, Pro people and Pro Planet Approach.

Why in News?

• India has released its Long-Term Low Emissions and Development Strategies (LT-LEDS) during COP27 which outlines priorities for carbon-intensive sectors like electricity and industry and transport, and emphasizes the role of a Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) as a mass movement towards sustainable consumption and production.

Role of education in the LiFE movement:

• Behavioural shifts of individuals: Education has a vital role in the LiFE movement from behavioural shifts of individuals to the re-shaping of markets and thus, can make a significant dent in reducing planet-warming gases.
• Potential of demand side actions: According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), demand-side actions have the potential to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40-70 per cent in 2050.
• Pro people and pro planet approach: Instead of mirroring a broken development paradigm based on an extractive relationship with nature, India can lead with an approach that’s better for both people and the planet. A climate-resilient education system will be essential to realising this opportunity.
• Fostering of green economy: This will enable Indians to move from vulnerability to agency, for forest-dwelling youth to be entrepreneurs in a nature-based economy, for children displaced by climate-induced disasters to attain a transformative education and be on pathways towards green jobs.

Issues faced by the education sector and children:

1. School closures during the pandemic: It has led to a learning deficit that’s getting reflected in reduced test scores.
   • This will likely impact productivity and per capita income levels in the long term.
   • One year of school closures can reduce GDP levels from 1.1 to 4.7 per cent according to the OECD.
   • The lasting impacts of Covid-19 can hinder economic mobility for a generation of Indians and alter the arithmetic for public finance.
2. Disruption of children’s learning and well-being due to climate impacts:
   • Extreme heat reduces students’ learning levels and causes physiological harm.
   • Schools are temporarily shut down and children’s health is affected due to persistently poor air quality in cities like Delhi.
3. Displacement of families during disasters:
   • Debilitating deluges are permanently displacing families, often leading to children and disproportionately girls dropping out of schools and being trafficked or subject to child labour due to distressed household incomes.

Leveraging The Education System To Avert Crises And Shape Opportunities:

• At a national level, a strong enabling framework for a climate-resilient education system could cover matters from curricula to nutrition to school building codes in a climate-changed world.
• India should create the framework of public school system through a consultative exercise with educators, students, experts from the humanities and sciences, and relevant ministries and departments is not only a source of learning but also shelter, clothing, food, and community for millions.
• Design and implementation in states and districts should be shaped by existing local needs and anticipated climate risks.
• Infrastructure investments so that school buildings can double up as emergency shelters in cyclone-prone areas and capacity additions and government schools in mega-cities that are destinations for climate migrants can integrate and empower children.
• Across the board, children should be able to access clean water and nutritious food.
• Students’ mental health needs should be served through an empathic expansion and an emphasis on social and emotional learning.

Curriculum for Climate resilient education:

• Curriculum can be infused with scientific and technical know-how alongside indigenous and local knowledge.
  • For example, Baiga and Gond students are learning about the potential of integrating biodiversity conservation with regenerative agriculture.
  • Youth in the by-lanes of Bengaluru are taking civic and climate actions from waste management to lake restorations to make their city more liveable.
• The cross-cutting imperative should be to foster critical thinking instead of rote learning so that the next generation can embrace complexity and make informed choices.
• Focus on climate education across society rather than simply at the primary and secondary levels.
• The imperative to retrain workers in industries that have a limited future in a green economy is being underlined in recent times. Thus, there is a need to prioritize technical training in colleges and universities in order to rapidly accelerate the decarbonisation pathway.

Way Forward:

• Investments in primary and secondary education are the greatest lever for development and can often be a net positive for public finance in the long term.
• Strong analytical capabilities and holistic thinking should be developed about societal transformations and how new technologies will be embedded in communities.

Conclusion:

• A narrow short-term approach could lead to a suboptimal transition addressing symptoms rather than the root causes and merely shifting unsustainable demand from one set of finite resources to another.
• From consumer choices to innovation to policy to finance, each aspect of a green economy will be underpinned by a strong education system that is resilient to climate change.
• This could be the greatest enabler of a uniquely Indian Lifestyle for Environment that taps into our civilisational richness and becomes a model and movement to be emulated by the world.

Source: Indian Express

Mains Question:

Q. A strong education system could be the greatest enabler of a uniquely Indian Lifestyle for Environment that taps into our civilisational richness and becomes a model and movement to be emulated by the world. Examine. (150 words).