Ministers Rally Behind Shared Climate Literacy Data Ahead of PISA 2029
COP 31 Presidency Events • United NationsNovember 14, 2026
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Education ministers and global agencies at a COP31 roundtable on Nov. 14, 2026, agreed on one goal: stop counting climate education pledges and start measuring what students actually learn. No binding decisions were taken. The session did mark the launch of a new Greening Education Partnership working group that Türkiye, the OECD and the Global Education Monitoring Report team will coordinate to build comparable data before climate literacy enters the PISA 2029 assessment.
- Seven delegations back shared indicators to move climate education "from activity to results"
- OECD confirms PISA 2029 will measure climate literacy and finds students know facts but lack agency
- Türkiye cites a PISA 2025 environmental science score of 494, above the OECD average of 480
- New GEP monitoring working group launches with Türkiye as co-coordinator
Ministers Want Proof, Not Promises, on Climate Education
Why it matters: Climate education is spreading through national curricula, but countries have no common yardstick for comparing results. Ministers spent roughly 41 minutes, the longest stretch of the session, arguing for one.
Where things stand: Iran, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Brazil and ICESCO each described their national approaches. Their reforms were at very different stages, but they converged on a shared ask: common indicators and data broken down by group.
Shina Ansari, Vice President and Head of the Department of Environment of Iran, said high-quality data underpin evidence-based policy and monitoring. She asked UNESCO to help develop common indicators.
Azerbaijan has already put climate content into a national test.
"We have instituted a uniform assessment at 6th grade across the whole country, so every single kid will sit this exam," said Hasan Hasanli, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Science and Education of Azerbaijan. That exam now includes a climate domain.
Uzbekistan reported that its PISA science score rose from 355 to 438 and that the number of eco-schools has grown. Its First Deputy Minister cautioned against treating rankings as final judgments. "International assessments should be treated as a diagnosis, not a verdict," the First Deputy Minister said.
Jordan wants national indicators aligned with PISA 2029. "Shared indicators through the Global Tracker and PISA would help us move from activity to results," said Jordan's delegate.
Brazil described BRALAC, its South-South cooperation network. "Evidence is essential to building the stronger public policies that we need and to create stronger state capacities," said Brazil's delegate.
Kyrgyzstan's Deputy Minister of Education framed the issue in economic terms. "Investment in climate education means also ensuring the future of our population," the Deputy Minister said.
The other side: No delegation opposed shared measurement. Uzbekistan's "diagnosis, not a verdict" warning was the closest thing to a counterweight. It signals that some ministries worry comparable data could be used to rank and shame systems rather than help them improve.
Decisions and stakeholder impacts: No motions or votes were taken. Salim Al-Malik, Director General, ICESCO, said the GEP Tracker, launched at COP30 with UNESCO, now covers close to 100 countries. He named three evidence gaps: implementation, teacher capacity and learning outcomes, and equity and resilience.
"We must now go beyond measuring commitment to measuring real impact," Al-Malik said.
For teachers, that points toward more scrutiny of classroom practice, not just curriculum documents. For students in poorer regions, disaggregated data could expose gaps that national averages hide.
What's next: Delegations will feed national data into the GEP Tracker and PISA 2029 alignment. The new working group will coordinate that effort.
OECD's 2029 Test Will Measure Climate Literacy
The basics: PISA is the OECD's international assessment of 15-year-olds. Climate literacy as an assessment domain was born at COP29 under Azerbaijan's presidency and will be measured in PISA 2029.
Why it matters: It will be the first cross-national measure of what students know and can do about climate change. Early data suggest schools are not getting there.
Where things stand: Andreas Schleicher, Director of Education and Skills, OECD, said environmental awareness among 15-year-olds in the OECD area has declined since 2003. School leaders are more confident about climate teaching than their students are. Pilot data from Brazil and Azerbaijan showed knowledge gaps and student anxiety.
He argued that students need more than intuition in an information environment saturated by AI. "Common sense is not enough," Schleicher said.
His core diagnosis was an agency gap. "A lot of what we do in school is very theoretical," Schleicher said. Students who had acted on environmental issues showed greater agency.
Decisions and stakeholder impacts: The OECD reaffirmed the 2029 timeline, which gives participating countries a fixed target. The findings favor hands-on, project-based climate learning. That could shift expectations for teacher training and school programs.
What's next: PISA 2029 will produce comparable country results on climate literacy.
Host Türkiye Ties Test Scores to Accountability
Why it matters: As host, Türkiye set the session's frame: measurement as a check on misleading numbers and a tool for equity and democratic accountability.
Where things stand: Yusuf Tekin, Minister of National Education of Türkiye, opened by noting that politics runs on a calendar of years while education runs on generations. He said repeated measurement gives policymakers the patience to wait for results and the evidence to be held accountable for them.
He cited his country's standing in environmental science. "In the year 2025, Turkey received 494 points, which is higher than the OECD average of 480," Tekin said.
Türkiye's national monitoring will add a climate literacy subscale. Tekin also urged protecting schools from war. He asked that children out of school because of conflict be counted in the data.
Decisions and stakeholder impacts: Türkiye became the 10th GEP member and will co-coordinate the monitoring and evaluation working group with the OECD and the Global Education Monitoring Report team. That gives Ankara a hand in shaping which indicators countries adopt. Tekin's push on out-of-school children would pull conflict-affected students into a system that usually measures only students who are enrolled.
What's next: The working group will coordinate peer learning and data sharing among members.
Minor Items
- Working group launched: Co-coordinators marked the GEP Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group's start with a group photo.
- GEP Tracker reach: The ICESCO-UNESCO tool now tracks close to 100 countries.
- Youth segment: The organizers announced a youth segment to follow the ministerial session.
Looking Ahead
The next milestone is PISA 2029, when climate literacy becomes a measured domain. Watch whether the new working group produces common indicators before then. Also watch whether out-of-school and conflict-affected children make it into the count.