Only a fully trained and educated program can resolve climate issues and set a precedent for future climate issues – UN, Paris, etc.

The newly created SGCE should create an interagency ACE Working Group that includes senior career officials from the ED and DOL, with representation across genders and race and with programmatic and budgetary responsibility in this area. This working group should:

Name a U.S. ACE focal point in the next few months, who will also chair the ACE Working Group in the USGCRP.

Develop a USGCRP budget for education and training activities (including identifying which existing and new member agencies will contribute to this budget).

Identify existing legislative mechanisms to unlock federal financing mechanisms (from the Perkins Bill to Pell Grants to federal National Science Foundation grants) to empower state-level development, dissemination, and implementation of a new green learning agenda.

Over the next year, the interagency ACE Working Group should regularly engage ED and DOL through seconded civil servants or deputy administrators to help support the work of the USGCRP. This work should include convening the ACE community of stakeholders across the country to build off of the ACE National Strategic Planning Framework for the United States to develop a U.S. ACE Strategy, ideally around the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November 2021. This work would also involve coordinating the development of a 50-state strategy on education for climate action that aligns with the U.S. ACE Strategy and contextualizes a green learning agenda to the diverse educational, workforce, and green transition needs of communities across the U.S.

The interagency ACE Working Group should also work closely with ED and DOL leadership to set the education and communications goals of the USGCRP’s next strategic plan (set to be renewed in 2022). This strategy should not only include identifying pathways to translate and disseminate USGCRP research and information into appropriate, relevant, and effective curricula, training resources, and public awareness campaigns, but should also expand USGCRP research to include research collaborations with ED and DOL on climate change education, training, and communications. This would help to develop feedback loops (e.g., monitoring and evaluation, longitudinal tracking, etc.) within the USGCRP’s work coordinating a new green learning agenda, developing a green workforce, and empowering bolder, more equitable U.S. climate action.

Finally, the interagency ACE Working Group should also coordinate the monitoring of and reporting on U.S. commitments to Article 12 (ACE) of the Paris Agreement through its national communications to the UNFCCC. Such monitoring and reporting would be akin to what the USGCRP presently does with its National Climate Assessment reporting to Congress.

Appendix 3 outlines additional actions to follow these efforts, including: expanding the scope of ED’s Green Strides initiative to include green learning and climate justice; reviewing the National Career Clusters Framework to consider how each cluster and career pathway can contribute to climate action; and following the principle of incremental fusion to help school districts increase the capacity of teachers to incorporate a new green learning agenda into their existing subject areas, lessons, and objectives.