By Larissa Kennedy
After countless protests, rallies and stunts led by student organisers up and down the country, 2020 marked 50% of UK universities divesting from fossil and, since then, more have joined this trend. If we want to get serious about the climate, governments and institutions must let COP26 be a watershed moment. They must all finally divest from abusive profit and redistribute resources towards racial justice and climate justice.
In order to halt the global temperature rising and meet the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, we need rapid and wholescale decarbonisation to stop releasing dangerous carbon compounds into the atmosphere. In the past few years, we’ve seen the consequences of inaction, with unpredictable weather events ranging from forest fires in India to widespread flooding displacing millions across China.
But in order to win a world free from uncontrollable weather patterns, more must be done. We must enact system change like that described in the Green New Deal, which calls for the complete decarbonisation of our economy in a way that safeguards the lives and livelihoods of marginalised folks..
Thinking about the power of the education system in this transition, we applaud Teach the Future’s campaign for climate education which not only advocates for sustainability to be taught across everything we learn, but also includes the need to transform where we learn by retrofitting all educational buildings.
Across the student movement, we are reimagining a new vision for education, where our systems of teaching and learning belong to the students, staff and communities they exist to serve; an education system that inspires and empowers students to build a sustainable world.
By Larissa Kennedy