Environmental Education for Sustainability Action Plan (ESAP)

MITECO

Coordinators: Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge and the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training

Twenty years after the publication of the White Paper on Environmental Education in Spain, the need to promote new efforts, clarify priorities and coordinate initiatives in the field of environmental education for sustainability is evident. The confluence of different factors has favoured the launch of a new process of strategic reflection, culminating in the Environmental Education for Sustainability Action Plan (hereinafter, PAEAS) and which aims to promote a cultural change that allows us to respond adequately to contemporary socio-environmental challenges in a coordinated, participatory way and with institutional and social co-responsibility. It also complies with the commitment of the Government of Spain contained in the Declaration on the Climate and Environmental Emergency

The preparation of the PAEAS has been carried out in two phases. In the first, a work organized from ten areas of environmental education for sustainability (EAS) in Spain was defined. The priority lines of action in each of the sectors were collected, incorporating into the PAEAS a multisectoral and broad vision of environmental education that is proposed to face the environmental crisis and the challenges for sustainability in the coming years.

Based on this participatory work, a base document was prepared that collected the visions, proposals and ideas of more than 300 experts related to SEA, and which constitutes the reference and starting point of the second phase for the drafting of this document, coordinated by a working group made up of the Ministries for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge and the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training.

The Action Plan establishes a consensual framework that reflects six operational axes and 61 key actions to be developed by the General State Administration in the field of EAS in a period of 5 years from its approval, as well as work guidelines and proposals for action for other sectors and agents involved.

The Environmental Education for Sustainability Action Plan (2021-2025) has been submitted for public participation from 19 to 31 May 2021. Almost 500 contributions were received that were analysed and, where appropriate, incorporated into the final document, which was reported by the Council of Ministers on 3 August 2021.

LINKS OF INTEREST

Project

Line of action:

Drivers of biodiversity loss

Status:

En ejecución

Execution date:

2020

End date:

2025

Project web page:

https://www.miteco.gob.es/es/ceneam/plan-accion-educacion-ambiental/paeas-marco-estrategico.aspx

Background

The White Paper (1999) offers a mosaic of ideas, suggestions and proposals for environmental education to contribute to improving the participation of the population in the prevention and resolution of environmental problems.

https://www.miteco.gob.es/es/ceneam/recursos/documentos/libro_blanco.aspx

Objectives

At a historic moment of essential progress towards sustainability and 20 years after the publication of the White Paper on Environmental Education in Spain, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge has begun work on the development of an Environmental Education Action Plan for Sustainability in Spain 2020-2025 (PAEAS). that allows defining strategic lines and concrete actions for the development of this matter in the coming years. This plan, which was presented at COP 25 (December 2019), is coordinated by CENEAM, with the support of the Biodiversity Foundation.

During 2020, a public participation process was launched, organised in two phases, whose objective is to facilitate the appropriation of this Action Plan by the different social sectors, through a process of collective construction in which contributions will be collected from the sectors of: General State Administration; Autonomous Communities; Local Administrations; Private Sector (Companies and Foundations); Environmental Associations, Social Organizations, Unions and Citizen Movements; Environmental Education and Environmental Equipment Professionals; Media and Social Networks; Protected Natural Areas; Formal Education and Educational Community; University.

The first phase of participation is carried out in 10 working groups with experts from the indicated sectors, which have a coordinating team that organises and facilitates their work in the following strategic areas: Climate change (mitigation and adaptation) and energy transition; Economy, lifestyles and conditions and health; Conservation of terrestrial and marine biodiversity; Education; Urban and rural areas; Governance; Training and professional development.

From the debate in the defined sectors, contributions and modifications will emerge to the existing base document, prepared by CENEAM, which will serve to draft a first version of the PAEAS, which will then be submitted to an open online participation phase. In this second phase, new contributions and changes will be obtained that will have to be assessed and incorporated into a second version, which will be informed by the autonomous communities and ministerial departments competent in the matter.

The process is expected to culminate in the holding of a National Congress on Environmental Education, at CENEAM, in the last quarter of 2020, where the final document of the Environmental Education Action Plan for Sustainability 2020-2025 (PAEAS) agreed upon by all actors will be presented for approval, which should constitute a working tool to guide the development of environmental education in Spain over the coming years.

Actions

https://www.miteco.gob.es/images/es/cronograma_tcm30-507543.pdf

Results

Promote the involvement of the different sectors and social agents in the processes of cultural change – through education, communication, training and environmental participation – that the ecological and energy transition will imply in the next decade.
Support, from the social tools of environmental education, the development and compliance with the environmental policies that the Government of Spain must promote in coherence with its international commitments.
Promote administrative coordination and strengthen governance in environmental education and communication at all levels: state, regional and local.
Promote collaboration – intersectoral and intrasectoral – between agents and entities with competence to promote processes of cultural change.
Prioritise those lines of action that are most useful to facilitate the knowledge, adequate understanding and appropriation by citizens of the political, regulatory, fiscal measures, etc. that will guide the transition to a low-carbon society in the coming years.
Promote the integration of environmental education into public policies

Environmental Education for Sustainability Action Plan (ESAP)

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