PESHAWAR: Participants in a consultation workshop on Monday underscored the importance of making the climate and environmental education part of curriculum to raise awareness among youth about the issue.

The workshop titled ‘Empowering Change: A Workshop on Systems Thinking for Climate Change and Environmental Education’ was organised by the Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED), Karachi, in connection with its Climate Action Fellowship (CAF-2024) initiative.

Fozia Parveen, assistant professor AKU-IED and the project lead of the CAF-2024 at this occasion said that they had selected 50 outstanding educators from KP to lead climate action initiatives within their schools and communities, under the guidance of AKU-IED.

“These fellows were chosen from over 500 applicants who had participated in multiple capacity-building workshops held in Chitral and Peshawar,” she said.

By July 2024, the top 20 ideas from these fellows were incentivized for expansion, and ongoing support was provided through webinars and online meetings, she said.

Ms Parveen said that 25 of the fellows were selected from Upper and Lower Chitral, while 25 others from rest of KP. The fellows at this occasion presented their projects before the participants which included government officials, academics and other professionals.

The participants, in a round table discussion, highlighted the importance of the environmental education in climate change adaptation and mitigation.

They said that it was imperative to impart knowledge to the students about this important issue, which was badly affecting the country.

The participants also called for the collaboration between the academia and government on the issue and implementation of the climate related policies and laws.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2024