The Climate Change Initiative (CCI) programme is the response from the European Space Agency (ESA) to the need for reliable and consistent climate data as formulated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). By harnessing climate knowledge and technical capabilities from across ESA Member States, the Climate Change Initiative has produced high-quality data records on Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), supporting thereby the UNFCCC and research & development of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC).
Communicating this state-of-the-art science to the young generation is an essential part of knowledge valorisation and is one of the pillars for addressing future problem related to climate change. In this regard, the Climate Change Initiative has developed ten classroom resources to raise students’ awareness of climate change and show its impacts around the world. These resources, developed by ITC, are based on the analysis of climate topics in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics subjects in eleven educational systems in Europe. The classroom resources are tailored to the curricula for primary and secondary education in Europe and are freely available in five European languages.
Primary classroom resources
- Country under threat – The role of global warming in sea level rise and flooding of coastal cities and small islands
- Is ozone good or bad? The role of human pollution in destroying the ozone layer.
- The water cycle – The effect of global warming on flood and drought
Lower secondary education
- A passage opens – The threat of melting sea-ice due to global warming
- The carbon cycle – How increased emission of carbon dioxide is affecting forests, oceans and our lives
- Taking the pulse of the planet – How satellite data helps our understanding climate change
Upper secondary education
- Taking the pulse of the planet – How satellite data helps our understanding climate change
- Urban hotspot – How urban areas are increasing the frequency of heat waves
- Biodiversity and habitat loss – How climate change is causing biodiversity and habitat loss
- Planetary heat pumps – How global warming is modulating the role of oceans as heat regulator
- Feeding the growing world – How climate change is threatening food security and crop production
