THE DEPARTMENT of Education and the Climate Change Commission recently conducted the first free webinar on climate change for secondary teachers.

Experts shared their knowledge during the “Climate Science Master Class for High School Teachers” held on November 24, 2020 as part of the activities for the 4th National Climate Change Conference and the 13th Annual Global Warming and Climate Change Consciousness Week.

The webinar featured lectures and discussions by the National Panel of Technical Experts, the government’s lead technical advisory body on climate science and technology. The participants were oriented on the materials that the DEPED’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Service is developing along with its partners to help teachers share learning competencies on climate change and promote climate action.

Jerome Ilagan, chief of the Policy Research and Development Division of the Climate Change Commission, stressed the need to make climate education accessible to more students.

The webinar aims to integrate climate education in Math, English, Filipino, Araling Panlipunan, and others.

DRRMS Director Ronilda Co said that officials “plotted” three ways to make climate education happen — by creating a Microsite on Curated Resources for Teaching Climate Change as an online website, developing handbooks and self-learning modules, and producing the KALIKASAN: Likha at Lakas ng Kabataan Para sa Kalikasan: a creative sourcebook on using theater for climate change education and action.

“Together, let us pave the way for a new generation of Filipinos fully aware and knowledgeable of the various dimensions of the climate emergency and fully committed to usher[ing] a brighter, safer, and more secure future for the Filipino nation,” The CCC Vice Chairman and Executive Director Emmanuel De Guzman  said.

The proposed handbooks have the following topics: The Science of Climate Change, Climate and Disaster Risk, Impacts of Climate Change on Human Beings, and Solutions to Climate Change.

The teacher-participants also learned about the role of greenhouse gases in global warming, ocean acidification, mitigation and adaptation, climate change on the health, responsibilities in climate change, biodiversity as well as other topics to consider.