Climate change and Education Dashboard
Education plays a critical role in the ongoing global battle against climate change. As climate-related events like floods and storms escalate, they pose a direct threat to children’s education. Schools are destroyed, livelihoods are lost, and children face increased displacement and exposure to environmental hazards. According to UNICEF website “The Climate-changed Child”, over 40 million children already experience disruptions in their education due to climate disasters, a number that is expected to rise as climate events become more frequent.
On average, the temperature of the earth has increased by approximately 2 degrees centigrate. This change causes extreme weather conditions in some regions. The year 2024 will see the highest temperatures in some parts of the world, with temperatures soaring above 41 degrees centigrade. Temperature increases are especially hard on children making it difficult to get to school, stay in school and particularly difficult to learn.
The Horn of Africa, the Sub-Saharan region and Asia have had the highest occurrences of drought in recent years. Drought occurrences in vulnerable regions lead to reduction in crop yield and consequently a loss of livelihood for parents, affecting the ability of children to go to school. Parents may pull their child from school to support the family and therefore delay their child’s educational attainment.
Globally, storms had the highest occurrence in 2023 (139) - 30% increase from 2022. Storms result in lives lost, livelihoods destroyed and educational infrastructures lost. These effects have a direct impact on children's education. In addition, an increase in storm occurrence could lead to internal displacement of families and educational staff which may result in a permanent loss of children’s education in vulnerable regions.
Globally there have been more flood occurrences in 2021 than in the 10 years preceding. There were about 222 total flood occurrences (a 10% increase from 2020). Flood events just as storm events are responsible for most climate-based migration. This often results in a total loss of education opportunities due to migration.
Climate Change and education dashboard
Climate change has had a disproportionate and disastrous impact on children’s education around the globe. This Climate & Education Dashboard provides an opportunity to find new connections and new pathways for positive change. The dashboard was created through gathering climate change and education-related data and its implementation. This dashboard provides a means of visual connection between related components that can create novel solutions.
The interactive chart displays average educational indicators and displays the exact location of natural disasters. This analysis enables a comparison between occurrences of climate disasters and educational indicators. For a deeper understanding of the impact of climate change on education, you are invited to explore the interactive chart.
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Climate Change and Education Resources
Explore how climate change reshapes education systems, and how we can collectively build resilient learning environments.
About I4DI
The Institute for Development Impact (I4DI) was established as a center for innovation to improve global sustainability practices. We work purposefully to transcend the gap between knowledge and practice by combining rigorous research with real-world action to drive positive results. Underscoring this work is an unwavering commitment to promote the well-being of all people, ensure the human rights of the most vulnerable, and protect the health of our planet. We believe that this is done best when stakeholders from across sectors actively adopt a “development mindset”, seeing the push towards sustainability not as something to be pursued by a few, but rather prioritized by all. Working towards this paradigm shift is our collective responsibility to future generations, as our missions are inherently interconnected. This report centers on the effect of climate change on education with the purpose of reducing inequality caused by climate change and ensuring the protection of the health of our planet overall.