Girls' education in climate strategies

Project Dryad Director has co-authored new analysis on girls’ education in climate strategies, alongside the Brookings Institute and Plan International, on behalf of UNICEF. The paper considers opportunities for improved policy and enhanced action in countries’ national climate plans (Nationally Determined Contributions).

Read the Brookings Institute blog for more information.

Do climate strategies include sufficient attention to girls’ education, specifically, and to inclusive, quality, gender transformative education, more broadly?

Based on an analysis of 160 Nationally Determined Contributions—country-level climate strategies to reduce emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change—and thirteen National Adaptation Plans, the answer is no. The findings suggest countries have a long way to go.

• Only one country’s NDC makes a reference to girls’ education and two additional countries refer to girls explicitly, a reflection of a larger omission of children/youth and education in climate strategies.

• Only 67 of 160 NDCs (approximately 42%) include a direct reference to children or youth and only eight to intergenerational injustice or future generations.

• Top 20 carbon emitting countries were least focused on education and children.

• Those countries that do attend to issues of intergenerational equity tend to be

  “young” countries—countries with a large under-15 population—and climate- vulnerable countries.