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This slide deck relates to a presentation given by OpenDevEd at The Education and Development Forum in Oxford (UKFIET 2023), as part of the sub-theme “Conflict, crisis, climate, and migration”. This presentation was part of the symposium called Climate, environment and education outcomes – Preliminary findings and practical experience from East and West Africa.

Abstract Global climate change, expected to be one of the most severe challenges that human beings have ever encountered, has had far-reaching impacts on ecosystems and humans, among which the potentially increasing chance of violent conflict has raised attention recently. However, several years of research have produced no consensus regarding whether climate variability affects the risk of armed conflict and how it may affect conflict. In this study, we built a geographically...

Abstract Self-reporting is an important mechanism of the UNFCCC to collect information about what countries are doing to achieve their climate change mitigation and adaptation targets and how much progress has been made. Here we empirically test four hypotheses about what countries prioritise in their self-reporting through the National Communications. Using quantitative text analysis methods (structural topic modelling and keyness statistics), we analyse over 600 submissions...

Studying the thermal environment in classrooms is essential due to its impact on students' health, teaching, learning, and productivity. In the Nigerian context, there is a general lack of thermal comfort studies, and none specifically relate to secondary school settings. This study aims to investigate students' perceptions of the indoor thermal environment and to determine the optimum temperature in naturally ventilated classrooms in the tropical savanna climate. Field investigations were...

One of the most important concerns affecting humanity today is climate change that has led to increased frequency of natural disasters that threaten social and economic stability to populations. Zambia’s vulnerability to the threat of disasters remains high because the country still lacks an effective Early Warning System (EWS). This study recognises the need to evaluate various Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, that have been successfully implemented in disaster prediction, in order to...

Studying the thermal environment in classrooms is essential due to its impact on students' health, teaching, learning, and productivity. In the Nigerian context, there is a general lack of thermal comfort studies, and none specifically relate to secondary school settings. This study aims to investigate students' perceptions of the indoor thermal environment and to determine the optimum temperature in naturally ventilated classrooms in the tropical savanna climate. Field investigations were...

The main aim of this study is to assess university students’ perceptions of climate change (CC) and sustainable development (SD). It also reviews existing curricula of various degree programs and obtains students’ opinion on how to integrate these concepts into the curricula and improve teaching methods and students’ learning. In total, 400 students from two of the oldest and renowned public sector higher education institutions (HEIs) in Lahore, Pakistan participated in this study. The...

In 2019 India was ranked seventh most affected nation by climate change, yet 65 per cent of the Indian population had not heard of climate change. India’s revised National Education Policy mentions climate change and environmental issues as part of its work towards reaching the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. However, to date, climate education in India has tended to remain the responsibility of the secondary science teacher in many schools where resources are limited....

A ccording to estimates by the World Health Organization, polluted outdoor air kills over 7 million people annually. In 2021, the WHO published new air quality guidelines to serve as the basis for setting or updating national ambient air quality standards. This document can also be the basis for setting national indoor air standards, as the recommended air pollution levels apply both to outdoor and indoor air. Will national jurisdictions update their indoor air quality (IAQ) standards? The...

Governments devote a large share of public budgets to construct, repair, and modernize school facilities. However, evidence on whether investments in the physical state of schools translate into better student outcomes is scant. In this study, we report the results of a large field study on the implications of poor air quality inside classrooms − a key performance measure of school mechanical ventilation systems. We continuously monitor the air quality (i.e., CO2), together with a rich set...

Recently, Occupant-Centric Control (OCC) strategies have gained mounting interest. Previous studies made use of OCC strategies for adjusting the operation of heating/cooling systems, improving indoor thermal comfort and governing mechanical ventilation systems. However, a very limited number of studies have applied OCC strategies to natural ventilation systems. Further, the feasibility of establishing OCC strategies for controlling indoor thermal comfort, energy use and specifically air...

Recently, Occupant-Centric Control (OCC) strategies have gained mounting interest. Previous studies made use of OCC strategies for adjusting the operation of heating/cooling systems, improving indoor thermal comfort and governing mechanical ventilation systems. However, a very limited number of studies have applied OCC strategies to natural ventilation systems. Further, the feasibility of establishing OCC strategies for controlling indoor thermal comfort, energy use and specifically air...

Simplification of input variables can increase the applicability of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in building load prediction. The most essential inputs for AI therefore need to be identified via a significance level test. In this study, the significance of the input parameters was evaluated using the standardized regression coefficient (SRC) and Explainable AI methods, i.e., Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations (LIME) and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP). To consider various...

Climate change is a complex and wicked problem, which needs to be addressed through relevant climate change education. However, the preconditions for combatting climate change differ in different parts of the world, depending on physical, cultural and social circumstances. The diversity of circumstances also influences the implementation of climate change in education. Therefore, in this article we have chosen to examine climate change education (CCE) based on an interview study in two...

Countries all over the world are experiencing the devastating havoc of climate change. Drastic efforts directed at integrating climate change education into the school curriculum in South African Secondary schools have been unsuccessful due to a lack of training support for teachers teaching Climate Change Education in secondary schools. The purpose of this paper was to explore the role of teacher capacitation programs in assisting Geography teacher to integrate climate change education in...

Humans spend the majority of their time indoors, where they are potentially exposed to hazardous pollutants. Within this context, over the past few years, there has been an upsurge of low-cost sensors (LCS) for the measurement of indoor air pollutants, motivated both by recent technological advances and by increased awareness of indoor air quality (IAQ) and its potential negative health impacts. Although not meeting the performance requirements for reference regulatory-equivalent monitoring...

The Aga Khan Education Services (AKES) of Tanzania has joined hands with the Aga Khan Foundation Tanzania (AKF) and the Ismaili Civic’s joint climate resilience initiative by supporting the establishment of a micro-forest in efforts aimed to reduce carbon footprint and conserve the environment.