This presentation is part of a larger PhD project which looks at research on policy-making in educational research. Specifically, the thesis will explore the relationships between researchers who study environmental and sustainability education, including climate change, and the policy-makers at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the core agency for education within the United Nations system, who develop guidelines, strategies, and plans to guide UNESCO’s Member States. This relationship between researchers and policy-makers is also called “Science-Policy Interface” (Kaaronen, 2016). There is a research gap on how the relationships between researchers and policy-makers work and how knowledge flows within the network. As Singer-Brodowski et al. (2020) claim: "what happens in a particular SPI [Science-Policy-Interface] policy-research relationship remains underresearched, particularly in relation to 'success criteria' for policy makers and researchers." (p. 554). It is also unclear if a science-policy interface is a desirable mechanism to develop policies.

This paper will focus on the literature review of the larger PhD thesis, highlighting what research has already been done in terms of researcher and policy-maker relationships in the areas of sustainability, and climate change education. The presentation will present concepts that are currently used within the United Nations Systems to educate all about the planets boundaries and what role educational research plays for the networks in which new policy are being created. 

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), a concept found in most national curricula frameworks of formal education globally today (UNESCO , 2021), tries to overcome our world’s issues by teaching systems thinking and ways to connect the today with the present (Leicht et al., 2018). It is one of the most dominant educational discourses steered by the United Nations (Bengtsson , 2016; Bylund et al., 2022; González -Gaudiano, 2016; Gough , 2017). ESD tries to teach all learners about the complex issues humankind has created, such as inequality, poverty, and climate change, and aims to overcome them by encouraging learners to take ownership and responsibility of their actions. ESD focuses on three, sometimes four dimensions – environment, social, economic, and culture – claiming that all dimensions are needed to create the Future we Want (United Nations , 2012), as the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development is called. 

A related, although different concept is Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE), which is part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). UNESCO and UNFCCC are increasingly working together to promote the concept of climate change communication and education (CCE), often in relation to ESD. Most recently, UNESCO and UNFCCC hosted a joined webinar series on ACE ahead of COP27. Due to this collaboration, ACE is also an area that has become relevant for this paper. 

ESD is a highly contested concept debated by academics (González-Gaudiano, 2016). Interestingly, the same people who criticize the concept, also tend to be the people who are invited by UNESCO to contribute to policy-making (Lysgaard et al., 2016; Payne , 2016). ACE is slightly different, as it is primarily negotiated at UNFCCC events, such as the Conference of the Parties (COP). Nevertheless, guidelines for ACE are sometimes written by the same people as for ESD (e.g., UNESCO & UNFCCC, 2016). Therefore, the question is: how is sustainability and climate change policy made? Whose research is involved in making sure the policy is evidence-based? Where do the ideas for the education policy come from?

This presentation is based on a literature review of existing literature on the science-policy interface of sustainability and climate change education. The primary purpose of this literature review is, as most literature reviews, “(a) to integrate (compare and contrast) what others have done and said, (b) to criticize previous scholarly works, (c) to build bridges between related topic areas, and/or (d) to identify the central issues in a field.” (Cooper, 2015, p. 5). The literature review will focus primarily on the international level, looking at research published in relation to UNESCO and/or UNFCCC.

The science-policy interface, sometimes also called research-policy relationship, within the field of education for sustainable development (ESD), environmental education (EE), or together environmental and sustainability education (ESE) and Climate Change Education (CCE) is a growing field. Three journals in the field dedicated special issues to the topic in recent years (Lysgaard et al., 2016; Payne, 2016; Rickinson & McKenzie, 2021), indicating a growing interest and an ever-increasing necessity to study the relationship between academia and policy-making. Through this literature review and presentation, I expect to gain a better inside into the challenges of the field and help to contribute to more awareness of the knowledge gap in policy-making.

Bengtsson, S. L. (2016). Hegemony and the politics of policy making for education for sustainable development: A case study of Vietnam. The Journal of Environmental Education, 47(2), 77-90. Bylund, L., Hellberg, S., & Knutsson, B. (2022). ‘We must urgently learn to live differently’: the biopolitics of ESD for 2030. Environmental Education Research, 28(1), 40-55. Cooper, H. (2015). Research synthesis and meta-analysis: A step-by-step approach (Vol. 2). Sage publications. González-Gaudiano, E. (2016). ESD: Power, politics, and policy:“Tragic optimism” from Latin America. The Journal of Environmental Education, 47(2), 118-127. Gough, A. (2017). Searching for a crack to let environment light in: Ecological biopolitics and education for sustainable development discourses. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 12(4), 889-905. Kaaronen, R. O. (2016). Scientific Support for Sustainable Development Policies: A Typology of Science–Policy Interfaces with Case Studies. Leicht, A., Heiss, J., & Byun, W. J. (2018). Issues and trends in education for sustainable development (Vol. 5). UNESCO publishing. Lysgaard, J. A., Reid, A., & Van Poeck, K. (2016). The roots and routes of environmental and sustainability education policy research–an introduction to a virtual special issue. Environmental Education Research, 22(3), 319-332. Payne, P. G. (2016). The politics of environmental education. Critical inquiry and education for sustainable development. In: Taylor & Francis. Rickinson, M., & McKenzie, M. (2021). The research-policy relationship in environmental and sustainability education. Environmental Education Research, 27(4), 465-479. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2021.1895973 Singer-Brodowski, M., Brock, A., Grund, J., & de Haan, G. (2020). Reflections on the science–policy interface within education for sustainable development in Germany. Environmental Education Research, 1-17. UNESCO. (2021). Learn for our planet. a global review of how environmental issues are integrated in education. . UNESCO, & UNFCCC. (2016). Action for Climate Empowerment: Guidelines for accelerating solutions through education, training and public awareness. UNESCO Publishing. United Nations. (2012). The future we want :resolution. In. [New York] :: UN.