From risk to readiness: How climate education empowers a nation

Every year, the Philippines faces an average of 20 tropical cyclones, testing not only our infrastructure but our ability to learn, adapt, and lead. Between 2011 and 2021, climate-related disasters caused P673 billion in damages, erasing livelihoods and development gains. Behind these figures are farmers, teachers, and families who rebuild after every storm — proof that while we cannot stop disasters, we can be better prepared for them.

Our strongest line of defense is not infrastructure alone. It is education — climate education that equips citizens with knowledge, foresight and the discipline to act. Because knowledge turns uncertainty into readiness.

At the Climate Change Commission (CCC), we have seen how information transforms vulnerability into strength. Science tells us that a warming world will bring stronger typhoons, longer droughts and deeper inequities. Education — rooted in evidence, guided by values and shared across all sectors — is the foundation of a climate-resilient Philippines.

Climate change affects not only the environment — it alters how people think, learn and grow. A PLOS Climate study involving 14.5 million students in 61 countries found that every additional 1°C of classroom heat reduces learning performance, particularly in mathematics and reasoning. The effect is most severe in schools without adequate cooling or ventilation.

In our country, more than 47,000 public schools stand in climate-vulnerable areas. Each disrupted class, each damaged school widens the gap between those who can adapt and those who cannot. Ensuring climate-resilient education is therefore not just an environmental goal but a social-justice imperative — central to achieving Sustainable Development Goals 4 (Quality Education), 13 (Climate Action) and 10 (Reduced Inequalities).

The Department of Education (DepEd) has embedded Climate Change Education into the MATATAG Curriculum, integrating science-based and locally relevant lessons into every classroom. This curriculum reform strengthens climate literacy among students, forming the foundation for a climate-resilient future.

Complementing these efforts, the National Adaptation Plan (NAP 2023-2050) — the Philippines’ first-ever NAP formulated under the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. — consolidates and provides a strategic framework that builds on the MATATAG Curriculum’s vision. The NAP places education, science and capacity development at the heart of national resilience. It recognizes that adaptation requires citizens who understand climate risks and act on them.

Starting early builds habits of foresight and stewardship. Yet resilience must continue beyond formal schooling. Through the ACT Local Program, the CCC works with state universities and colleges (SUCs), local governments, and civil society partners to strengthen climate and disaster risk assessments, greenhouse gas inventories and local adaptation strategies.

This collaboration links classroom learning with community practice. SUCs provide research and training; LGUs translate science into local plans and budgets; and the private sector lends expertise through targeted partnerships. Together, these actors build a continuum of climate literacy, from the classroom to the council hall, from data to decisions.

The CCC also supports alternative and continuing learning for those beyond formal education. Working with SUCs and LGUs, training programs reach teachers, farmers, fisherfolk, women, youth and micro-entrepreneurs — helping vulnerable sectors strengthen adaptive capacity and participate in the transition to a green and resilient economy.

The potential of the ACT Local Program is immense. With greater support from local governments, legislators, and national agencies, ACT Local can evolve from a capacity-building platform into a full program-based initiative for teaching, training, and reaching not only LGUs and university students, but also basic-education learners, informal workers, farmers, and other vulnerable sectors.

In doing so, it can build a nationwide community of learning champions — individuals and institutions who understand that resilience is taught, practiced and shared. Each classroom discussion, barangay workshop, or livelihood training becomes a seed of preparedness and a proof of solidarity.

This is the kind of whole-of-society education envisioned by the NAP 2023-2050 and by President Marcos Jr.’s call for a climate-smart, future-ready Philippines.

As Senator Loren Legarda, a steadfast champion of climate action, reminds us: reducing disaster risk is inseparable from reducing poverty. This demands not only strong laws but capable, informed people.

Teachers must have the resources to make science relatable. Local governments must connect education and adaptation in their Local Climate Change Action Plans (LCCAPs). Universities must ground research in local realities. And the private sector must continue supporting education and training that extend learning beyond schools — into communities, workplaces and supply chains.

Ultimately, the center of transformation is the Filipino learner. Whether a student in a coastal barangay, a farmer in a training session, or a mother in an alternative learning class, every Filipino who learns about climate change gains the power to act — and to lead.

The path to resilience begins long before the next storm — with every lesson learned, every plan improved, every citizen informed. It strengthens when science guides policy, when transparency builds trust, and when government, academe, business and communities learn side by side.

No Filipino should ever again have to say, “We did not know what to do.” Through climate education and lifelong learning, we can ensure that future generations will instead say, “We knew, we prepared, and we prevailed.”

Through knowledge, compassion, and shared commitment, we can build a climate-smart, climate-resilient Philippines — one where every classroom, company and community becomes a seedbed of safety, and every learner a steward of the nation’s future.