StrathCEKO – Strathclyde Climate Education Kick-Off: a systems thinking approach to scalable, peer-to-peer climate education

Any institution set on embedding ESD in its curricula must encourage its students to engage in ‘systems thinking’ to understand the complex global issues and many interactions that occur within our earth, social, political and economic systems. Furthermore, while public acknowledgement of climate change as a real and urgent threat is greater than ever, particularly among our youth population, many of the public remain aware only of the more visible cause and effects. Climate tipping points and feedback loops remain less prominent in mainstream reporting and general conversation. More widespread awareness and deeper understanding of these and the range of viable (and less viable) solutions to mitigating climate change are required. A deeper understanding of these can ultimately energise even greater levels of public activism, and lead to more desirable social and political ‘tipping points’, required to achieve more effective systems change at the scale and pace required of a climate emergency. Research has shown that people who score higher on ‘systems thinking’ are consistently more likely to be better informed and hence value issues like climate change as personally important and take more effective action on them. But how, in the first instance, can we gain a better sense of the power of systems thinking, and its potential role in helping us better understand the hidden truths and risks associated with climate change, such as climate runaway effects? More importantly, how can we use this to better understand the type of positive systems change we can take to mitigate this?
The Strathclyde Climate Education Kick-Off (StrathCEKO) distils the complex language spanning several thousand pages of the IPCC WG reports focusing on climate change causes, effects and mitigations into a more accessible, digestible, gamified and highly interactive learning format. It encourages participants to exercise their ‘systems and critical thinking’ competencies to understand the problem (i.e. the cause and effects and interdependencies associated with climate change) and explore the range of policy solutions (i.e. the mitigation and implementation challenges) required to “keep 1.5 alive”.
A key innovation of StrathCEKO lies in its accessibility, replicability and scalability, achieved through its peer-to-peer, multiplier delivery model. The session will demonstrate how universities can engage with third parties including NGOs and think tanks to capitalize on their expertise and resourcefulness to deliver academically robust and highly engaging climate education toolkits. Furthermore, it will consider the opportunities that exist for community engagement with students operating as institutional Climate Ambassadors through staff and student-led Climate Education, and how this has led to the establishment of our Strathclyde Climate Ambassadors’ Network following our recent UK & Ireland Green Gown Award for Student Engagement.
In summary, the session presents a practical approach to mobilising staff and students in delivering sustainable and scalable Climate Education through the use of readily available, academically robust and engaging ‘off-the-shelf’ workshop offerings. It will demonstrate an effective means of informing and equipping our students to advocate for the systems change required to hold influencers to account in meeting global climate and sustainability targets.