Transcript Setting the global context: Implications for RCEs

Challenges and Opportunities
Hugh Atkinson
Sustainable Development
 Development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs- Bruntland
Commission 1987
 Development that meets the needs of the present
whilst safeguarding the Earth’s support system, on
which the welfare of current and future generations
depends- Schumacher Institute 2013
Sustainable Development
ecological limits
social limits
economic
limits
Education for Sustainability Programme
The challenges
 Climate change
 The Far Right and nativist politics
 Migration
 Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
(TTIP)
Climate Change
 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC
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2013
Increase in global temperatures
20 of the 21 hottest years since records began have
occurred in the last 25 years
At current rates, within 25 years world will have
emitted all greenhouses that atmosphere can cope
with for all of 21st century
Two degree centigrade threshold
Migration
 Climate change
 War and dislocation
 The arms trade
The Far Right in Europe
 Austria – Freedom Party
 France – National Front
 UK- UKIP
 Sweden- Swedish Democrats
 Question- how do we challenge the narrative?
Trans Atlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership
 Off shore tribunals
 Impact on the environment, society and democracy
 Neo Liberalism
Opportunities
Opportunities
 COP21
 The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
 The Global Action Plan (GAP)
COP 21 Paris
COP 21
 First all world deal on tackling climate change
 Intended nationally agreed contributions (INDCs) 
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voluntary
Aim: to keep global temperatures increases below two
degrees centigrade
Review of national progress every 5 years but process
unclear
Climate Finance for developing countries
67 billion pounds by 2020- eight per cent of global
military spending
The Sustainable Development
Goals
The Sustainable Development
Goals
 Goal 4 – Ensure inclusive and equitable quality
education for all
 Goal 5- Achieve gender equality and empower all
women and girls
 Goal 8- Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable
economic growth
 Key question- how do we make these a reality?
The Global Action Plan-GAP
UNESCO Road Map for
Implementing GAP for ESD- 2014
 Two overarching objectives
 First: To reorient education and learning so that
everyone has the opportunity to acquire the
knowledge, skills and values and attitudes that
empower them to contribute to SD
 Second: To strengthen, education and learning in all
agendas, programs and activities that promote SD
Conclusion
 We need a new anthropocene with human learning
and human activity as a positive force for creating a
more sustainable world