In this interview, meet Johnny Dabrowski from EARTHDAY.ORG.
Johnny, you are originally from Poland and play an important role with EARTHDAY.ORG. What led you here and what is your role within the organisation?
Since I became a climate activist at Fridays For Future Poland in 2019, it has been very clear to me that if we do not educate my generation about the climate crisis, we won’t make the world carbon neutral by 2050. I wasn’t alone in this thinking, nor in my homeland or abroad. Together with my fellow Polish youth advocates, we have convinced the right-wing Minister of Education to implement climate change education in schools in my country.
At the Youth4Climate Conference in Milan, in 2021, I met with the leaders of the world’s biggest environmental movement – EARTHDAY.ORG – who shared my vision about the importance of education in facing climate change. Now, as a consultant at EARTHDAY.ORG, I’m coordinating the Climate Education Coalition and pushing the world leaders to give adequate funding and attention to education about the largest crisis any generation has to face so far.
During COP27, Earthday.org announced the Climate Education Coalition. Can you tell us more about it?
On 10 November 2022 more than 100 youth organisations and activists established the Climate Education Coalition at the EARTHDAY.ORG Climate Education Hub at COP27. The goal of the Coalition is to create a youth movement around climate education. Our aim is to organise Earth Day 2023 for Climate Education around the world, on which day we will push world leaders to focus on climate education as a solution for solving climate change.
As a coalition, we will promote each other’s projects, so that they can gain adequate attention and funding. We are also strongly advocating for climate education to be highlighted during COP28 by the UAE Presidency and we are calling on all Ministers of Education to sign and adopt the Declaration for Climate Education from COP26.
In conclusion, the goal of EARTHDAY.ORG and Climate Education Coalition is to push for governments worldwide to introduce complementary climate education to the school curricula.Â
How can one join the Climate Education Coalition?
All youth organisations are welcome. Please contact: [email protected] or [email protected]
What are your objectives for the next two years? What achievements would you be the most proud of?Â
As a member of EARTHDAY.ORG my primary objective is to bring climate education as top level priority at the international climate negotiations and together with youth organisations, to make climate education a part of the curricula in every country by 2025.Â
Do you have any announcements or news to share with us?
I would like to invite you to join Earth Day 2023, which EARTHDAY.ORG has organised for more than 50 years: please visit https://www.earthday.org/ to learn more. If you would like to organise Earth Day in your region and you have sufficient funds and resources to do it, please contact me at [email protected]
