Education in Global Citizenship (GCED) should be incorporated into environmental

education programmes. Environmental issues are defined as harm to the Earth and its natural
systems caused by human activity. According to Piccolo (2021), “Environmental issues have
been on the political radar for more than 50 years.” In recent years, many countries have
stepped up their efforts to educate and train students and educators about environmental
issues.

The GCED, a concept proposed by the United Nations, aims to develop young people
into responsible and active global citizens. Regarding the cognitive domain, the benefits of
conceptual dimensions of GCED to society in resolving environmental issues include
enabling learners to develop core competencies to gain knowledge and understand the causes
and consequences of environmental problems. In this context, climate change enables
informed decision-making, recognizes that addressing and protecting the climate is a global
responsibility, and empowers learners. Consider the case where people cannot understand the
connection between greenhouse gas emissions and individual emissions and the causes and
effects, thereby undermining their motivation to act. Because of its complexity and the
aggregate as opposed to personal emissions, people may be unaware of and underappreciate
their role in climate change. According to Mochizuki and Bryan (2015), education helps
increase people’s understanding of the processes and activities that drive climate change.
UNESCO (2016) stated that environmentally literate students who have received formal
environmental literacy education are better equipped to connect specific issues and global
environmental change. The report also explains their findings in Bangladesh, where the
National Curriculum and Textbook Board of Bangladesh endorsed a school manual on the
issues, resulting in a dramatic increase in student's knowledge of climate change and health
protection.

Beyond a cognitive approach, GCED creates a learning environment where learners

can appreciate nature, care, and responsibility as global citizens. Based on human rights, a
sense of belonging to a community, solidarity, respect for differences and diversity, and
building values, soft skills, and attitudes can facilitate international cooperation. These
provide benefits to learners in a socio-emotional context. Indigenous communities, for
example, are particularly vulnerable because their territories are directly affected by climate
change. However, they could resist and adapt to environmental change because of their
relationship and knowledge with the environment. The IPCC Report 2014 emphasises the
need to integrate indigenous and traditional knowledge with existing practices as a resource
for adapting to climate change. This integration of expertise provides intercultural respect and
openness to knowledge systems and cultures. Based on shared fundamental values, they
increase awareness and resilience against disaster.

GCED emphasised the behavioural domain by empowering learners to become

change agents. According to Edwards et al. (2020), education on sustainable development
influenced learners’ beliefs and attitudes toward sustainable development, with positive
outcomes including greater awareness of nature, conservation of resources, and a more
sustainable lifestyle. In addition, it indicates a rise in morale to address environmental issues.
For example, GCED empowers students to take individual action by reducing ecological
footprints, using renewable energy sources, and protecting the environment.

To summarise, environmental issues are caused by a small number of natural sources

and primarily by human activities. It can mitigate the devastation caused by air pollutants in
daily human life. By implementing the three central conceptual dimensions of GCED, each
citizen can resolve environmental issues for a more sustainable future.