The acting Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, has closed, during the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP25), the presentation of the Environmental Education Action Plan for Sustainability, a work whose objective is to advance and improve the document “Towards Education for Sustainability. 20 years after the White Paper on Environmental Education in Spain”.

The director of the Biodiversity Foundation, Sonia Castañeda, and the director of CENEAM, Álvaro de Torres, explained the highlights of this Environmental Education for Sustainability Action Plan, which will be structured around seven fundamental strategic areas (climate change (mitigation and adaptation); energy transition; economy, consumption and lifestyles; biodiversity conservation; rural environment; urban environment; and proposals related to governance, training and professional development) and will be addressed from the perspective of ten sectors (General State Administration; Autonomous Communities; Local Administrations; Private Sector (Companies/Foundations); Environmental Associations, Social Organisations and Trade Unions/Citizens’ Movements; Environmental Education Professionals and Environmental Facilities; Media and Social Networks; Protected Natural Areas; Formal Education and Parents’ Associations; and University).

In the process of preparing this plan , both units will work with the aim of promoting two participatory processes, one of experts and the other open, which with the help of a rapporteur will produce a document that will later be consulted with other ministerial departments and with the autonomous communities. The final version will detail the most relevant objectives, actions, results, periods or indicators, constituting an eminently practical document for the development of environmental education in the coming years.

Leire Pajín, president of the Spanish Network for Sustainable Development (REDS), accompanied by Javier Benayas, professor of the Department of Ecology at the Autonomous University of Madrid, and Carmelo Marcén, master and doctor in Geography from the University of Zaragoza, took part in the presentation.

Groups for environmental education such as the EA26 initiative, Teachers For Future Spain and School Networks for Sustainability (ESenRED) have also participated in the event.