DHAKA, Nov 18, 2024 (BSS) - Governments in Asia and the Pacific must invest 
in education and training to comprehensively develop climate literacy and 
green skills needed for low-carbon economies.

A new report from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) suggests that education 
systems and nationally determined contributions (NDCs) have not yet caught up 
with the human development needs of climate resilient economic growth.

Globally, the demand for green jobs is outpacing the supply of green workers, 
according to the ADB's Climate Change and Education Playbook launched today.
 
The report also stressed the need for adapting schools to the impacts of 
climate change as extreme weather is significantly increasing school closures 
and affecting learning outcomes and household incomes over the long-term.

With the right green investments, the transition to a low-carbon economy 
could create more than 230 million jobs in Asia and the Pacific by 2030, 
according to the report.
 
Around eight million coal industry workers in the region will need reskilling 
as coal industries are phasing out. Additionally, all 4.7 billion citizens in 
the region require basic climate knowledge and awareness.

The report said Bangladesh's coastal location and low-lying land render it 
one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change leading 
to high economic and non-economic costs related to loss and damage (e.g., 
loss of life, mobility, environment, health, and/or knowledge).

In the last decade, flooding incidences have worsened in terms of frequency 
and magnitude. Climate projections indicate that this trend is expected to 
continue with rising temperatures and precipitation.
 
Failure to address climate change impacts is estimated to result in a 6.8 
percent loss in GDP per year by 2030.

The increasing pressures of climate change, coupled with the global push for 
sustainability, demand that businesses shift toward climate-resilient and 
resource-efficient industry practices and adoption of green technologies 
essential for economic competitiveness.
 
However, there is a significant gap in green skills among the current 
workforce and a shortage of competent mid-level managers, who can champion 
climate resilient business models and environmentally conscious operations.
 
These shortcomings hinder industries from integrating green technologies and 
sustainable practices that can increase industry competitiveness and move up 
the global value chains. 

Compounded by underemployment and rising youth unemployment, this lack of 
skilled green workforce contributes to a missed opportunity for inclusive 
green growth. 

In India for example, the report said students who experience prolonged 
exposure to storms are about seven percent more likely to fall behind in 
school and will experience an eight percent drop in household income on 
average, according.
 
Last year, extreme heat in the Philippines closed schools for 32 days while 
Pakistan's devastating floods in 2022 damaged some 17,000 schools, disrupting 
education for 2.6 million children, according to the ADB report.

"Making education systems climate-ready is a key policy agenda in the coming 
years," said ADB Sectors Group Director General Ramesh Subramaniam.

"We must make education systems climate-ready at various levels-from the 
curriculum, to infrastructure, and teacher education so that students develop 
the skills to enable the green transition," he added.

The report aligns with the Baku Initiative on Human Development for Climate 
Resilience launched today at a COP29 high-level meeting attended by COP 
President and Azerbaijan Minister for Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar 
Babayev, Subramaniam, and other global development organizations and 
government representatives.

The report makes several calls to action to build climate resilience through 
education, such as enabling transformative climate literacy for children and 
youth; building green skills for the current and future workforce; 
incorporating the human dimension into upcoming NDCs and support the 
education and training of women, disadvantaged youth and the marginalized to 
pursue climate-resilient pathways.

Governments in developing Asia must ensure that they incorporate clear, 
substantive measures to harness education and training in forthcoming updates 
to their NDCs under the Paris Agreement.
 
Doing so can ensure that education systems strategically enable countries' 
paths to decarbonization based on climate literacy, green skills, and the 
research and development required to achieve national mitigation and 
adaptation goals.

ADB recently announced a new financing programme that will enable it to 
increase its education investments.
 
Under a partnership signed with the International Finance Facility for 
Education--a sovereign backed-Swiss foundation, the organization will 
guarantee $125 million of ADB's existing loan portfolio which the bank will 
then leverage four times to generate a new $500 million in new concessional 
financing for lower middle-income countries in Asia and the Pacific.