Education for a greener, more sustainable Europe: Share your ideas!

The aim of the consultation is to gather input and ideas for a proposal for a Council Recommendation on education for environmental sustainability, to be adopted by the Commission in late 2021.

Are learners in Europe being equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to act on the climate emergency and biodiversity loss?

Are teachers being prepared and supported to teach about these difficult issues in a way that empowers their students?

Are curricula supporting the development of attitudes and values needed to promote environmental sustainability?

How can we ensure that young people acquire the right skills for the green jobs of the future?

Share your opinion in the new public consultation on education for environmental sustainability! The consultation is running in all 23 EU official languages and will be open for contributions until 24 September 2021.

Background

The Recommendation will set out the key challenges for integrating sustainability into education and will recommend a series of actions for education and training providers and policymakers.

It will also detail how the Commission plans to support this work through European Union actions and funding over the coming years.

European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, commented:

“Education has a key role to play for inspiring sustainable behaviour and helping citizens move from awareness to action. Schools, higher education institutions, training centers should be empowered to provide quality education for environmental sustainability. The Commission is fully committed to supporting national efforts and to enable more cooperation and exchange on these issues at European level. The public consultation launched today will pave the way for a proposal that will make European curricula fit for the green transition.”

Through the European Green Deal, the EU is taking action to fight climate change and to encourage all citizens to work towards a greener and more sustainable Europe.

The Recommendation will help support EU Member States in their efforts to align their education and training systems with the changes urgently required for the green transition.

The upcoming Council Recommendation on education for environmental sustainability was announced in the 2020 Commission Communication on Achieving the European Education Area by 2025 and in the EU Biodiversity Strategy.

Further activities

As well as the public consultation, online workshops with young people, educators, higher education institutions, non-governmental organisations, researchers and other organisations involved in formal and non-formal education and training and the environment are running until July to gather input and ideas.

In parallel, the Commission is working to develop a framework, which will set out the competences related to sustainability that learners of all ages need to acquire.

More information

European Commission