Open to all European education institutions. Educational material and online courses. 4 hubs in separate countries. Virtual Climate Auditorium.

 The Erasmus+ Teacher Academies is a new flagship action of the 2021-2027 Erasmus+ programme that aims to create partnerships of teacher’s education and training providers across Europe in order to develop the European and international dimensions of teacher’s education, contributing to the achievement of the objectives of the European Education Area. The first 11 Erasmus+ Teacher Academies have already been launched as of summer 2022 to support teachers with learning opportunities and to develop teacher’s education. Among them, the CLIMAte change teachers’ acaDEMY (CLIMADEMY) aims to create a European network to offer a comprehensive program where teachers will interact and learn how to educate the next generation of European citizens on climate change issues.

Climate change is unequivocally attributed to human activities and is already affecting Europe, leading to heat waves, extreme drought and flood events, forest fires, biodiversity loss, decreasing crop yields and affect human health. The European Parliament acknowledges that ‘education for young people represents one of the most effective tools for compacting climate change’. However, climate change is not yet broadly incorporated in school science curricula.

CLIMADEMY aims to fill this gap by developing and establishing a network and community of practice to create innovative strategies and programs for preparatory and continuous professional development for serving and student teachers on climate change and its impacts. The consortium consists of four EU countries (Finland, Germany, Greece and Italy) and once operationally established, it will be open to new members.

Educational material focused on the drivers causing the human-induced climate perturbations, the impacts of climate change and the measures for sustainability, will be tailored for initial education and professional development and made openly available to all education institutions across Europe. Serving and student teachers will have a key role in the design and development of the material, acting both as trainees and co-designers. The material will be easily accessed, adopted and replicated, using modern educational practices and tools.

One common virtual Climate Auditorium (CLAUDI) will be the basis for the Teachers’ Academy for climate change education and networking and will be connecting four hubs, one in each country, with specific foci driven by the regional particularities. These hubs will be established around two air pollution and climate change monitoring stations in two different regions of Europe that both experience exceptionally rapid climate changes when compared to the global mean trends: a close to the Arctic region in a boreal forest in Finland and a Mediterranean semi-arid subtropical region in Greece, while two more hubs will be established focusing on computer modelling and space-based observations of the Earth system in Germany and the pedagogical foundations of environmental education in Italy. These hubs through physical, virtual (supported by CLAUDI) and blended training will provide informal learning settings that can aid teachers in thinking differently about the practice of school science with respect to climate change.