It’s not enough to have school recycling drives. MENA’s current climate change education ambition is low, especially compared to the global average, notes a recent blog post from global organization Education International, which is running a campaign to mainstream science-based, civic action-focused climate education. Only five countries in the region — Tunisia, Jordan, Qatar, and Mauritania — even reference climate change education in their January 2022 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) — which Education International analyzed to score climate change education based on quality, inclusiveness, green skills provision, teacher training, and the strengthening of education systems.

In the run-up to COP27, MENA needs to shift its current “alarming” climate change education ambition, and assume a leadership role in this key area, Education International argues.

At the university level, an effort is at least being made to run degree programs related to environmental issues. A 2019 survey of 57 top-ranked universities in the Arab region by the Beirut-based Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) identified 221 university degree programs related to environmental topics, of which 71 were BAs, 102 MAs, 36 PhD programs, and 12 technical diplomas. There are more scientific and technical degrees — particularly ones focused on environmental sciences — than ones related to economics, law, education and policy, according to the AFED 2019 report (pdf) on Environmental Education for Sustainable Development in Arab Countries — the most recent available.

Some subjects get much more airtime than others: At the pre-university level, the trend of incorporating some discussions on the environment into all subject-matter courses is growing in the region, the AFED report found. But while pollution, environmental health, nature and biological diversity are the most commonly-examined topics in school curricula within the Arab world, food and water security, plastic pollution and resource efficiency are rarely addressed, it adds.

Ultimately, in terms of formal education, the region still lags behind: “Although a strong trend can be seen in the inclusion of environmental topics in curricula, progress remains uneven across Arab countries and educational institutions,” notes the AFED report. “More so, it is evident that there is a clear gap between the Arab region and other parts of the world when it comes to environmental education,” it adds.

Regional universities have started holding conferences on the role of academia in the climate crisis: This includes the 2019 MENA Environmental Law Scholars conference in Morocco, which looked at how law schools in the region could spur climate action through innovative teaching. A May 2022 webinar organized by research portal Nature Middle East brought together academics from the region — including representatives from the Royal Scientific Society of Jordan, Egypt’s Zewail City of Science, Technology and Innovation, and the Qatar Foundation — to look at the sustainability of Arab academic institutions. The Future Earth MENA Regional Center (FEMRC) regularly holds events on climate change mitigation, including most recently a water conference in collaboration with the University of Bahrain.

International climate-focused events are starting to focus more on MENA climate education: The first ever MENA Climate Week, held in March 2022 in Dubai, brought together stakeholders including governments, the private sector, financial institutions and civil society. Among other activities (pdf), it held events centered on climate change education. The Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection and African Youth Climate Hub held an event on climate education for African youth, while the Tunisian education ministry led a session focused on higher education and research for environmental change management in Mediterranean countries. Earth Day — an annual event to raise environmental awareness — has expanded to become an organization that advocates for climate literacy in all schools. In 2021, Earth Day held over 290 digital and in-person events in MENA and Pakistan to raise awareness on climate change.

And interest is growing among MENA youth in grassroots environmental education movements. Youth organizations like YOUNGO (the UNFCCC’s constituency of Youth Non-Governmental Organizations and Environment Association from the Arab region) are helping to produce educational and climate change-related studies and newsletters, notes Executive Director of the Arab Youth Climate Movement Qatar Neeshad Shafi, in a Cairo Review of Global Affairs article.